


Squad Goals

by Sandra_Taylor



Series: Squad Goals [1]
Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, POV Owen, POV Zach, Slow Build, Underage Drinking, end game Owen/Zach, side Owen/Claire, the movie never happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 17:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 38,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13769082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandra_Taylor/pseuds/Sandra_Taylor
Summary: When Zach first comes to the Jurassic World, he’s sixteen and his parents are in the middle of a divorce.Or the one where Zach deals with his sexual crisis, his attraction to Owen (who's not only way older, but also aunt Claire's boyfriend, god damn it!) and his uncertainty about his future while befriending the nastiest raptor in the pack and finding himself a job that he actually enjoys.





	Squad Goals

**Author's Note:**

> My first work in the fandom! And my first work in a while. But I'm actually proud of this one.  
> The events of the movie never happened. It's explained later in the fic.  
> Also, I have no idea how rating works. I chose this one because no one is really watching their tongue in this fic, so it's mostly for language. The most Zach and Owen get to is some light making out

When Zach first comes to the Jurassic World, he’s sixteen and his parents are in the middle of a divorce. Not that he realizes that until Gray tells him so.

It’s not that he doesn’t know that their parents have problems. It’s just that he didn’t know they know about their problems. They were always arguing, that’s all he can remember. Well, not really. They just stopped being careful around him once Gray was born.

It doesn’t help that they’re on the run from their babysitter, going for an attraction Gray was looking forward to for some time.

There are some girls in front of them and he can’t help but stare.

They’re good looking. They’re pretty and around his age and he really should be excited to see them. But he’s not. The longer he stares at them the more apparent it is that he doesn’t feel anything when he looks at them.

The ride is nice enough and Gray spits out encyclopedia knowledge about dinosaurs like it’s nothing. Zach lets him babble and mostly lets the information go right over him. It’s not that it’s not interesting, it’s just… he doesn’t really care.

Gray is excited, though, so he counts it as a win. It’s starting to get late by the time they finish the ride, so he steers Gray back to the center. Didn’t Zara say something about aunt Claire wanting to see them for dinner?

By the time they make it back to Zara, she’s as white as a wall, clutching a mobile phone in her hand.

“Where have you been?! I’ve been looking for you the whole afternoon!”

Gray crunches up his face and Zach rolls his eyes but takes the blame. It was him who took Gray and ran away after all.

Zara looks at him and sighs.

“Yeah, okay. I understand why you’d hate a babysitter with you, but can we at least cooperate next time around so I don’t have a heart attack every time your aunt calls?”

And that’s fair, so Zach agrees. Besides, they have just enough time to freshen up and get ready for dinner with aunt Claire.

***

The stay is… Zach doesn’t want to say boring, but that’s what it is.

Dinner with aunt Claire was boring and awkward. Or maybe that’s just him. Gray seemed to have good enough time, preening under their aunt fleeting attention. But that’s Gray, he’s always been happy when people pay attention to him. And aunt Claire’s trying, if nothing else. Even though she’s checking her phone every five minutes or so. He’s not sure if Gray doesn't notice or just doesn’t care, but he just turns the volume of his music a little bit louder. People around them already stare at him for it, but he doesn’t really care.

The next day she takes them to the control room. It’s full of high tech and people working it and he doesn’t understand anything that’s going on there. And he doesn’t really care. Aunt Claire is distracted and soon she disappears, leaving them in Zara’s care. Again. She looks over them, notices how bored Gray looks and quickly ushers them out of there.

“Okay, so, look. I was telling the truth, the bracelets will get you practically everywhere you’d like to go and I’m sure the last thing you need is a babysitter. And to be honest, I have better things to do. So, if you two promise to stick together and call me if anything, and I mean anything, happens.... Do we have a deal?”

Great, he ditched the babysitter and is stuck with a hyperactive preteen. But that way he’ll be the one in charge, so there’s that at least.

It takes only another day and a half for them to see all the attractions the island has to offer. Gray is excited and ready to see all of it again, maybe even twice, but Zach is over it already. To be honest, he was over it after the first day around, but what can he do.

They have dinner every day with aunt Claire and after the first night she even makes a real effort to keep her phone away from it. So Zach’s not really that surprised when Gray finally asks the question he’s been hearing from him for three days.

“Aren’t there any raptors around? They are the best.”

Aunt Claire makes a face at that.

“There… are some raptors. They’re not ready for viewing. Not yet. Maybe if you come over during the summer,” she smiles at them and Zach frowns a little. Now she wants to be all friendly with them?

So when they meet with Zara next morning for breakfast, mostly just to check in with each other and tell her their plan for the day, he is the one to ask.

“I hear there are raptors around?”

Zara stops with her cup of coffee halfway to her mouth and Gray frowns a little, but Zach shoots him a look and he doesn’t say anything. Zara puts the cup back down carefully, before turning her laser focus fully on him.

“Yes, we do have a pack of Raptors. They’re not ready for the crowds yet, though.”

“It’s not like the two of us is a crowd. And we have a VIP bracelets.”

He shakes his wrist in her direction. She frowns a little, but her look isn’t any less intense for it.

“Your aunt wouldn’t approve.”

“Please, Zara? Raptor’s are Gray’s very favorite.”

Luckily, Gray catches up to his sham and turns his best puppy eyes to Zara. She moves her laser eyes to Gray, but he doesn’t even flinch. Finally, she sighs.

“If your aunt asks, it’s Owen’s fault.”

Gray smiles so brightly he almost shines, but Zach frowns a little.

“Who’s Owen?”

***

Zara drives them out herself and Zach’s impressed with the way she still seems so sure on her heels even in the forest. Sure, they’re not that high, but still.

There’s a man near the cage, he’s tall and broad and Zach quickly checks out that Gray’s okay. Zara talks to the guy for some time, before turning around and going back. She stops by them just to tell them that the guy is Owen and that he will drive them back to the center once the show is over. And that if he pisses them off they can still call her, but she adds that quiet enough just for Zach to hear. He smiles at that. He likes Zara.

When he turns back to the man, he’s smiling at them.

“So, you wanna see something interesting, huh?”

“Yes!” Gray almost shouts. “Raptors are the best.”

The man chuckles.

“That’s right, kid. Just… stay here while I’ll get the lunch ready. Barry? Barry! Come here and show those kids where they can watch the show.”

He doesn’t wait for the other guy to show up, just opens the gate, slips in, closes it again and goes to open the second gate. That’s when the second man turns up. He’s even taller than the first man, dark and frowning at them.

“What are you doing here?”

Gray gulps and hides a little behind Zach. Zach rolls his eyes and raises his left hand.

“We have VIP bracelets.”

“That doesn’t mean shit.”

“Zara says it does.”

The frown deepens, but the man just waves for them to follow him.

He gets them on the bridge above the arena.

“Be careful, the raptors will be in there once Owen is done with preparing their lunch, so if you fall over, you’ll be done for.”

Gray shivers and makes a step closer to Zach, but he takes a step closer to the railing, looking down to the arena. He can see the man from before (Owen?) hiding raw meat in the jungle. That’s fascinating, to be honest. He hasn’t seen anything like that at any other exhibit. It was always just… getting a piece of dead meat in the middle of an arena or somewhere where the people would see good enough and wait for the dinosaur to show up. That’s not what was going on here.

When the man comes out of the arena, he comes up to the bridge with them, smiling brightly. He’s wearing some light shirt with a brown vest of some kind and beige cargo shorts and Zach quickly whips his head back up, looking at his face.

“Ready for the show?”

What show?

But the doors to the arena open suddenly and four raptors run out of it. There’s clicking coming from the guy and the raptors stop before they can get anywhere really. They are still fidgety and obviously don’t want to stop, so why-

“Echo!” hollers the man in a voice that’s surprisingly firm, clutching something in one hand while stretching the other in front of him. “Stop that. You know better than that. Charlie, I can see you!”

And yes, okay, this is impressive. Gray is still standing close to him, but now even he looks down with an excited expression.

The raptors… don’t exactly listen to the man’s every word. They’re fidgety and every time they think the man isn’t paying attention to them they try to run off. Every one of them. But they don’t run off after the meat before he lets them.

It happens in a weird combination of a click and a whistle and all four raptors are off. That’s when the man turns towards them.

“So, you’re Claire’s nephews, huh? I’m Owen. I’m sure you’ve heard about me.”

His smile is cocksure and Zach snorts.

“Nope. Not a word.”

Owen’s smile doesn’t waver, but it turns even more amused. Before he has a chance to say anything, though, Gray’s there with yet another question.

“What are they doing?”

“They’re hunting. It’s lunchtime.”

Gray frowns at that.

“None of the other dinosaurs around here do that.”

“That’s because your aunt doesn’t believe animals have instincts and needs. Predators don’t just need to eat, they need to hunt. That’s why the first Jurassic Park ended up as bad as it did.”

“But they still do it with the T-Rex,” Zach frowns a little. Owen moves his eyes back to him and Zach finds himself unable to look at him. “We saw it at our first day. And yesterday,” he shoots his glare at Gray, but the younger kid doesn’t notice.

“It’s not that bad with Roberta. Plus, the security is much better here than it was back then. But raptors… they’re more dangerous. They’re intelligent and they hunt in packs, which makes them even more dangerous.”

Owen and Gray get into a serious debate about raptors, but Zach just stands there and watches the animals hunt for already dead meat.

Maybe the last few days of the holiday aren’t going to be so bad.

***

After the hunt is done, Owen takes them down from the bridge. He shows them containment units for the raptors. It’s boxes with a kind of cage sticking out of it, obviously to keep their heads there, keeping their jaws closed.

“We put them here when we need to check them up or just need to get close to them.”

Zach just looks at him, but Gray runs away to the cage. There’s two sets of bars between him and the Raptors and they’re lost somewhere in the jungle, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Owen and Zach join him in a more relaxed tempo.

“What are their names?”

Owen glances at him, but Zach is staring at the jungle, trying to see the wild dinosaurs. He’s not that lucky, obviously, but he tries.

“You’re probably not gonna see them from here, but… Echo has a scar on her jaw. She’s brown with blue stripes. Charlie and Delta are both green, Delta a little lighter and Charlie with black stripes on her back. Blue is grey with blue line on her whole body. She’s the beta of the pack.”

“Who’s the alpha?”

It’s Gray asking it, but even Zach looks at Owen, waiting for his answer. Owen simply smirks.

“You’re looking at him, kid.”

Zach can feel his heart start beating erratically and his face heating up and…

Shit. This… this is a big reaction. It’s also the kind of reaction he’s been waiting for regarding girls forever.

But that’s just it. It didn’t come with girls. It came with Owen.

“We should go. Aunt Claire… Zara is gonna wait for us. We should get to lunch anyway if we wanna catch the… water… dino… thing.”

“Zaaaach!” Gray whines and Zach almost flinches but doesn’t budge.

He needs to get away from here.

Owen gives him one, long look, but he ignores that.

“Can someone get us back to the center? Zara said you’d be the one to take care of that.”

Owen doesn’t answer for a while, but Zach refuses to look at him. Finally, he answers them.

“I’ll get someone to get you there. We’re not all fitting on my bike. Wait here.

***

The second time he comes to the isle, he’s seventeen and going crazy.

Gray’s on some camp for geniuses and his mother just started dating after the divorce again and he hates the new guy because he doesn’t understand Gray. And his mother is done with him before the end of the first week of holiday, so he’s shipped off to the island for the rest of the holiday.

He’s not excited about it, not the way Gray is excited to come join him after his camp is done.

It turns into downright annoyed when it’s not only his aunt waiting for him on the airport.

“Zach,” she smiles at him brightly, although a little awkwardly and Zach really doesn’t know what she’s trying to play here. And why did she bring Owen with her? “It’s so good to see you. I promise that this time I’m gonna be around much more than during Christmas. And this is…”

“Owen. I know,” he interrupts her, not looking at the man. “Can we go, now?”

They ride the train the same way they did last time with Zara, but now instead of Gray there’s some strange kid next to him and he can hear aunt Claire and Owen arguing behind him. He’s done with people arguing, so he puts on his headphones as soon as he can, turning the music up as much as he can.

He has the same rooms in the hotel as the last time. Gray will join him once he’s here, but for now he’s on his own. Owen didn’t come up with them and aunt Claire looks nervous all of a sudden.

“It’s late now and we have a table reserved in the restaurant, but if you want to stay in here…”

“Yeah, I’ll stay. Thanks.”

He throws his bag on one of the beds and throws himself on the other. Aunt Claire is still standing just a few steps into the room, so he just looks at her for a while.

“Anything else?”

“Oh, right.” She looks unsure and that’s a weird look on her. “I’m sorry about Christmas. There was some… unexpected problem that had to be taken care of. I promise that this time around I’m gonna be around more.”

“Great.” That’s the last thing he needs. “Anything else?”

She frowns a little but doesn’t move to leave.

“I’m not happy that you went to see the raptors last time. Zara…”

“It was not her fault.” He might not really care about this island or the next five weeks he’s going to spend here, but he likes Zara. He hoped to get to see her again. “I talked her into it. Gray wanted to see raptors and I talked Zara into letting us see them even though they’re closed for the public. You want to punish someone, punish me.”

For some reason, that makes aunt Claire look all gentle.

“I just wanted to say that the raptors should be ready to open their own exhibit at the end of summer. And that’s only because marketing doesn’t want them out before the end of it. They should be ready already, so… if you want to see them again, just ask.”

Zach frowns and wants to refuse outright. Seeing them would mean seeing Owen. But…

The raptors were the only thing he remembers being interesting during his last stay. He didn’t really see them that much, but they seemed… interesting.

“Okay.”

He then puts on his headphones and ignores his aunt. The next time he looks up, aunt Claire is gone.

***

The breakfast is awkward and painful. Question about his girlfriend is practically the first question she asks him and it’s going downhill from there. She takes him to the operation center once again and he’s even more bored now than he was last time. Luckily she notices and takes him out to one of the attractions. That’s how he finds himself in the glass hamster ball with his aunt.

“So… what dinosaur do you like the best?”

She’s still trying to smile at him, but it’s strained and he knows that she’s close to snapping. She’s not alone.

“I don’t like dinosaurs,” he mutters and tries to ignore the small voice inside his head reminding him of the raptors pack. It’s the same voice that tells him Josh Green is much hotter than Imogen, so he has some practice in ignoring it.

Aunt Claire frowns.

“So why are you in here?”

He shrugs.

“Mum sent me. Didn’t really give me a choice.”

She frowns, but he ignores her, looking at the display, letting it show him a map of the complex. There’s still almost half the tour left and he’s so bored.

When they step out of the ball, aunt Claire gives him one look, before swiftly going to the nearest car. She gestures for him to get in and gets behind the wheel herself.

“That’s your car?”

She smiles at him sharply.

“No. But that’s the perk of being the boss. Seatbelt on.”

He almost expects her to drive swiftly, but she doesn’t. She’s not exactly slow, but not really fast, either. Eventually, they do make it to the raptors arena, though. Zach frowns when he recognizes it.

There are four big screens around the arena along with groups of seats here and there high above, even above the fence. It looks a little bit wonky, but Zach knows better by now than to question the tech on the island. They only get the very best.

Aunt Claire checks her watch before frowning and looking around.

“Where is everyone? It’s almost time for feeding.”

“Lunch! It’s called lunch, Claire!” comes a shouting response from near the arena and soon Owen is coming to them. “Came to see the show?”

“I figured we can be the guinea pigs for your show. Today is the camera test, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. The girls are all hooked up now. We figured we’d try it with all of them. If there are gonna be any problems it’s better that we know it now.” He leans in and kisses aunt Claire on the cheek she gives him for it. Zach wants to look away, he really does, he’s just… not able to do so. “You gonna sit on the visitor’s seats, or you gonna join me on the bridge?”

“Visitor seats,” she replies simply. “Tell the technical team to get ready, we’re doing this as if it was real.”

“You do know what the word holiday means, right? You don’t work today, you took some time off!”

Aunt Claire rolls her eyes at him, but she’s mostly amused and Zach can see that.

“What, you afraid your girls are not gonna be good enough?”

Owen makes a theatrical sound close to gasp, clutching one hand at his chest.

“How mean! My girls are perfectly ready. Mostly. If Echo is over her bratty behavior from yesterday. You, missy, are gonna be amazed.”

Zach’s throat gets tight for a moment. The easy bickering of the two of them, the kind of lazy chemistry between them…

He’s not jealous of his aunt. Not at all. Just maybe… of her relationship. Cause that seems nice.

They get to the seat closest to where the raptors will run into the arena. There are no seats right above it, but honestly, that’s probably clever. Besides, the screens are positioned so everyone can see them. Owen stands on the bridge they stood on the first time he saw the raptors with Gray, fidgeting with the microphone he has on himself.

“So,” he finally speaks up and the speakers screech and Zach and Owen both cringe, but Claire hardly moves a muscle. “Do you expect me to put on the whole show, or…?”

Claire rolls her eyes, but then takes the walkie talkie on her hip. Zach didn’t even notice it before.

“I told you, we want the whole show. Should be good for you to try it out before an audience shows up.”

Owen makes a face at that, before giving thumbs up to someone on the side. The screens turn on and Owen’s face appears on all of them. He gives them a big, bright, obviously fake smile.

“Lady and gentleman!” he winks at them and Zach tries to ignore the way he likes it. It’s probably meant for aunt Claire anyway. “Welcome to the show of Raptor’s pack!”

It’s very familiar to what all the others shows are like and Owen looks just as bored as Zach’s feeling. But then he smiles and his eyes crinkle a little and Zach knows that finally, there’s going to be something interesting.

“Now, let’s meet my girls!” His smile turns much more honest and, somehow, gentle. “This is Blue.”

The door opens and out runs Blue. Zach stands up and smiles at the screeching raptor. She runs around, screeching, searching. She’s obviously not happy about being alone and she’s not shy about letting her displeasure be known. Zach smiles when he sees her.

She has something right behind her head, a black belt right there for some reason.

“Blue’s the beta of the group. She’s the oldest of the group, the leader of the rest of them. She likes the hunts we prepare for them and is probably the most daring from all of them. Keep your hands to yourself, cause she’d be the first one to bite it off.”

Then he clicks the clicker in his hand and Blue looks up to him. He throws her a dead rat that she finishes in two bites. Zach grins when he sees it. But Blue is still nervously watching the space next to her.

Finally, another door opens.

“This is Delta, Blues’s second in command.”

Delta runs over to Blue, they chirp at each other for a while, going in circles around each other, before standing back to back and still looking around for the rest of them. Delta also has the black thing behind her head and Zach deduces that that has to be the camera Claire and Owen were talking about.

“Delta is loyal, but vicious when hungry. Her and Blue are great team, very effective. The two of them are usually the brain behind any plan the pack decides to use during their hunts. And they are great plans, if I say so myself. Then, there’s Echo.”  
Once again the door opens and Echo runs from it. She doesn’t join the others the same way Delta did with Blue. Instead she runs circles around both of them, not stopping after only one or two circles.  
“Echo and Blue have more complicated relationship. Echo wanted to be leader herself, but Blue didn’t agree with that. You can still see the result of that fight – Echo had a dislocated jaw and still has the scars from back then. Obviously, she lost, but she’s still an important member of the group. She might be not as clever, but she is just as vicious. Echo, Delta!”

Delta looks up and she gets a rat for her troubles, but Echo doesn’t notice. Owen clicks a few more times, before talking to her again.

“Echo! Eyes on me,” he snaps at her. She looks at him and screeches, but Owen doesn’t move a bit. She then calms down a bit and Owen smiles and throws her her own rat.

The door opens again and out comes running the last raptor. Charlie, Zach remembers. She runs towards Blue and nuzzles to her neck. Blue screeches and pushes her away, but somehow it’s not as hard as Zach’s expecting from a leader of a raptor pack.

“She’s the youngest of the pack and as you could see, she adores Blue. Charlie, look up!”

He clicks and she cocks her head.

“Charlie!” he clicks again and she finally looks up. Owen glows up with a smile. “That’s the good girl. Here you go.”

The rat disappears in her just as quickly as it did with the rest of them.

“Now, as I was saying, raptors don’t only need to eat, they need to hunt for their food. Those rats were just a little something for their good behavior. But now, we’ll begin the hunt.” He clicks again, about five times in a row, and whistles, high and long. All four raptors look up to him then. He raises his hand in front of him and the gate separating the raptors from the rest of the arena starts to raise. Zach hasn’t notice it before. He’s sure the gate wasn’t there last time he was here. “Echo!” Zach automatically looks towards the brown raptor and grins when he notices the way she moves back a little, screeching softly. Like a kid caught doing something wrong. “Stay there, you little shit!”

Zach chuckles, but his aunt isn’t nearly as amused.

“The plan is for them to not go running until I tell them they can. You then will be able to watch the hunt in the arena, but mostly at our screens.” As he says it, the screens change, so his face stays on only one of them. The rest are just jungle, but by the movement of it Zach realizes that it’s from the cameras on the raptors. “We have various cameras in the arena that will track their movements plus camera on every raptor. Actually, at that part I will tell them which raptor has the camera, but, you know, improvisation.” He’s obviously telling the last part to them, but he doesn’t look away from the raptors. By then the gate is all the way up and the raptors are more fidgety than before and Owen is still clicking. “Are we ready?”

Zach hollers at that. And okay, that’s probably not a good idea by the way the raptors look away from Owen and up to him, but he doesn’t really care. Besides, if they want them to be ready for regular people, the raptors should get used to it.

“Girls, eyes on me!” And they look back at Owen. Zach’s really trying to ignore how much it impresses him. Then Owen lowers his hand while whistling, this time just short and much lower. The raptors run off into the jungle part of the arena.

Zach looks over at the screens and frowns a little bit. The video is shaking and it’s making his head spin. He knows that it’s because on each screen there’s a camera from each of the raptors and as they move the camera moves, but it doesn’t make it better.

“You don’t like it?” frowns Claire a little bit. Zach almost rolls his eyes but holds himself back. Instead he sits down again. He doesn’t think the seats were built to stand in front of them, but… well.

“No, it’s just… the way it moves makes me dizzy. But it won’t be like that during normal shows, will it?”

“No, it won’t.” With that, Claire gets out her walkie-talkie again. “I want the steady cameras on two screens now.”

It takes only a minute after that for two screens to change. Zach watches it, but it’s just not as interesting as seeing real-life raptors was. Or their interaction with Owen.

“Still don’t like it?”

“No, it’s fine, just… can we go now? Or do you have to go do more work?”

Claire flinches at that and it’s not fair. Zach knows that, but he just… can’t make himself care.

“Sure, let’s go.”

By the time they make it down, Owen is here, too, getting into the space that’s just one set of bars away from the whole arena. He smiles at them brightly.

“So? How did you like it?”

“You need to stop cursing while speaking to the raptors,” Claire answers, all business like. Owen frowns a little, but Zach just rolls his eyes. She needs to relax a little more. “There are gonna be kids watching the show, Owen, and we can’t have our employees cursing in front of them.”

Zach notices that Owen’s good humor vanished with her condescending tone. Now his expression is all stormy.

“Then you should have let Barry do the show instead of me like I told you.”

“Barry doesn’t have the same relationship with the raptors. They don’t listen to him the same way they do to you.”

“Then you need to back off and let me do this the way I do things.”

Claire is already opening her mouth again when someone else screams.

“Loose pig!”

They turn towards the arena. There’s some kid on the bridge bending down over the railing, trying to catch the pig with some kind of long loop. He’s successful, but when he tries to get it up the raptors get there and snatch the pig away, making the kid lose balance and fall into the arena.

Claire raises her arm so it’s shielding Zach from… he’s not sure exactly what and finds it annoying, so he slaps it away and makes the few steps to the first set of bars. By the time he makes it, Owen is standing between the kid and his raptors.

“Hey, no. No! Blue, step back. Step back!”

And the raptors listen to him. Reluctantly, while screeching and sneering and hissing, but they listen.

Owen pushes the kid back and he listens, quickly scrambling back, so he has one set of bars between himself and the raptors.

“That’s it. That’s… it,” he says softly, slowly, letting his arm slowly fall before getting it back up again when Blue gets too close to him. “Close the gate.”

Zach tightly grabs the bars, his heart beating in his throat. He has enough self-control not to yell out, but…

“No!” screams the black guy who was in charge of him and Gray the last time they were around and Zach’s really glad it wasn’t him screaming out.

“Yes!” screams the kid. “Close it!”

“Close the gate!” Owen repeats and Zach frowns a little bit. Owen already made a step back and the raptors can sense his uncertainty, making their way closer to him. Slowly, but not as slowly as he is backing away from them. “Now!”

Barry curses and pushes the button to close the gate. Owen waits another few seconds before quickly running to the gate and making his way through it at the last second.

Zach’s heart is beating… everywhere, really, and he can’t hear anything through the humming in his ears.

Shit, this is bad, isn’t it?

Owen finally comes out of there and Claire is right there waiting for him. And she doesn’t look happy with him.

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

Zach grins when he hears that. What happened to the no-cursing rule?

Owen looks surprised and gets defensive immediately.

“What do you mean? The kid would get eaten if I didn’t do it.”

“He should have been more careful in his job. Everyone signs the papers for it, it would be his own mistake. But you just…”

“He’s just a kid, Claire! What was I supposed to do?! Just let him be eaten when I know I can stop the girls from doing something like that?”

Zach sighs and leans back to the bars behind him. He looks over his shoulder to see where the raptors are. Sure, there’s one more set of bars between him and them, but… he figures that precaution can’t really hurt. That’s how he catches Barry rolling his eyes.

“Are they always like that?”

“Yeah. Owen does impulsive shit all the time and Claire hates it.”

Zach frowns.

“I thought they are in a relationship.”

“They are. And it’s the rest of us who suffer for it.”

Zach frowns even more. He doesn’t really get it. Owen obviously knows what he’s doing around the raptors. Plus, the whole thing was… heroic, really. And hot.

He shakes his head and ignores that part of him. Again. Seems like every time he’s around Owen that part is louder than usual.

***

His aunt can’t take the whole holiday off, obviously, so the very next day she’s back to working. It’s probably better anyway. It’s not like he and aunt Claire have that many things to talk about. The first day in itself was painfully awkward for both of them.

That’s how he finds himself getting breakfast with Zara the next day.

“How was the wedding?”

She gives him one, unimpressed look.

“It’s set to be at the beginning of September. I was just booking things back then.”

Zach scrunches his nose at that, reaching for a coffee.

“Seriously? Almost a year in advance?”

“We had to book the place two years in advance. I was just beginning to do the rest of it when you two showed up. How’s Gray?”

Somehow, he doesn’t have the same problems with Zara. She’s easy to talk to and doesn’t push him when he doesn’t want to answer. She asks about his girlfriend, too, but she doesn’t make a big deal of it when he refuses to answer and instead asks about his plans for college. And once again doesn’t make a big deal when he doesn’t want to talk about it.

“That’s fine,” she waves it away. “Believe me, it’s not that important what you decide right now. Did you know that I studied journalism?”

He doesn’t believe her, so she tells him how she met her boyfriend when she and a group of her friends from college were here for holidays. She liked the island so much, that when she couldn’t find a job after college, she applied for a job here. She started at the bottom, in administration, running errands for different people, but soon she raised up the chain and it wasn’t long before Claire picked her up as her assistant. It was obviously a stressful job and she proved to be good under pressure before, that’s why she got this job. That was almost two years ago.

Surprisingly, Zach’s not bored with that story by the end of it. In fact, he asks questions about her boyfriend (fiancé, but whatever) and is actually pleased when she takes out her phone and shows him a picture of the two of them. They’re cute together and Zara looks smug when he says so.

“So, any plans today?”

Zach sighs at that. Why is that the question from everyone recently?

“Probably gonna go back up and listen to some music. Maybe watch a movie or two.”

Zara frowns at that a little.

“Really? You’re on a tropical island with dinosaurs and you’re gonna be in your room the whole day?”

“It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before.”

“So did I and I wouldn’t spend it that way.”

“Okay, fine. What would you do, then?”

She takes another sip of her coffee and then another bite from her own breakfast (scrambled eggs with ham and toast). But Zach can see that she’s thinking, so he doesn’t push it.

“First, I’d probably go to the petting zoo.”

“Petting zoo?!” He’s not sure if he’s more surprised or amused. “Isn’t that like, for kids?”

“And?” she shrugs. “You get to pet baby dinosaurs there. Pretty neat if you ask me.”

“Okay, fine, that’s fair. What then?”

“Well, it’s still me, so I would probably get coffees to people in operation center. God knows those nerds need it. But then… probably go to the ride where you get to see the dinosaurs out in the open? I don’t really like predators that much, but those creatures, practically walking with them… it’s nice.”

Zach rolls his eyes, but it’s more amused than anything else.

“You’re a softie.”

She simply laughs.

“Yeah, probably. Either way, you have my number, so if you need anything… you know the drill. I’m not actually on the babysitter duty this time around, so I should go do my job. Your aunt has a dinner with some investors tonight, so don’t wait for her.”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t even dream about it,” he drags out, sarcastic. She stills on her seat, her bag in her lap already.

“She really does care about you, Zach. She just… have no idea how to talk to you.”

“She could start with not treating me like a kid.”

“Good point. Anyway, the feeding program for predators is the same as the last time you were here, so if you want to catch anything, you know where to go. We still on for breakfast tomorrow, right?”

Zach still goes back up to his hotel room, but he finds himself restless here. He puts on some movie, but it can’t hold his attention, so he puts some music on, but he finds himself distracted and needing to do something more.

It’s a spur of the moment thing, his decision. He just takes his phone, his wrist band and his earphones and gets out of the hotel. It’s not like he’ll need his wallet with him, the bracelet should take care of that for him. He puts the earphones on in the elevator and selects a random order of all his songs on his phone, before slipping it to a pocket on his shorts. Once he’s in the lobby he takes one of the little printed maps and gets out of the hotel.

The weather is brilliant and once he gets away from the crowds he even enjoys the fresh air. Maybe Zara had a point.

That’s how he finds himself at the petting zoo. He feels a little awkward between all the little kids and their parents running after them, but once he gets to the enclosure, he forgets all about them. His music helps with that, but he actually enjoys petting the little dinosaurs. It’s relaxing. Who’d guess?

He gets so lost in his own little word that a hand on his shoulder scares him enough for him to jump a little. Which scares the little dino in front of him (he’s not sure what that one’s called. Maybe he should start paying attention to Gray’s ramblings) enough for it to run away. He’d regret it, if he wasn’t already getting the earphones down and turning around.

“I didn’t scare you, did I?” Owen’s smiling a wide, shit-eating grin and Zach really wants to punch him right about now. “You really shouldn’t wear your earphones around dinosaurs.”

“These are baby herbivores.” Zach’s deeply unimpressed and for some reason, Owen finds it amusing.

“Doesn’t mean they couldn’t step all over you when they grow up, kid.”

“I’m pretty sure that by then I’d be allowed close to them only in the hamster ball.”

Owen laughs at that, a deep belly laugh that makes Zach shiver.

“Hamster ball, huh? That’s on point. You doing something, or do you have some free time?”

Zach tries to come up with something he has to do, he really does. But the longer it takes the higher Owen’s eyebrows get, so in the end he just sighs and shakes his head.

“Great. Come on, it’s almost time for lunch for the raptors and this time around there will be no dicking around for your aunt.”

It’s time for Zach’s raising eyebrows.

“Aren’t you dating her?”

“Yeah. Turns out we work better together when we don’t… work… together.” He frowns a little. “Come on. I should be at the arena… five minutes ago. We should really get going now.”

“We?”

But he lets his earphones rest around his neck and goes with Owen to his bike. Owen hands him his helmet and sits down himself without one.

“You’re not gonna wear one?” Zach asks, but he already put the helmet on. If he’s going to go riding with some stranger, he’s not doing it without at least some protection.

“I left my free one at the bungalow.”

“Bungalow?”

“Have you seen the flats they offer for employees? It’s like you’re in a box.”

Zach sits himself behind Owen and carefully puts his hands on Owen’s sides. Owen simply takes them and wraps them around his waist. Zach flinches, but takes a deep breath, joins his hands on Owen’s belly and tries to ignore the way it’s making him feel all… shaky.

The feeling only deepens when Owen actually starts the bike and they take off. Owen doesn’t have any reservation regarding fast ride and they zig-zag around people in the streets before making it out of the crowds, away from the center and into the jungle. Zach wants to laugh a little, the adrenaline making his head a little lighter.

At least he hopes it’s the adrenaline from the ride.

They arrive to the arena soon enough and Owen takes them right to one of the behind the scenes rooms, where there are people preparing for the show and the bike is sheltered from the weather. Zach quickly slides away from the bike and takes the helmet off. Owen takes it and puts it on the bike.

“Come on, let’s meet my girls. Do they already have the cameras on?”

“Barry just went to give one to Delta, you can do the rest.”

“Come on, then,” he smiles brightly at Zach. “Let’s meet my girls.”

On their way there someone gives Owen three black stripes with cameras in them and once they make it out, the raptors are in the containment boxes Zach saw during their Christmas visit, their head in the space meant for them. They can’t open their jaws, but the close proximity still makes Zach pause in the door before quickly moving so he’s close to Owen. The things he feels around him might scare him, but the raptors scare him more. And fascinate him. Scare and fascinate him both.

Barry stands near one of the raptors, the light green one. She already has camera on her and she’s letting him pat her lightly. Owen goes straight to the grey raptor with blue stripe on her body. He murmurs something to her, softly, stroking her jaw lightly, before hooking the camera behind her head. She screeches when he fastens it but doesn’t fret that much.

“You remember Blue?” he asks, stepping back and looking at him for a while, before quickly looking back at the raptor. “Blue, this is Zach. He’s a friend.”

Zach steps closer to her and she sneers, trashing a little in the containment. Zach stops immediately, his heart beating fast and this time he’s sure it’s not from Owen.

“Now, be good. He’s Claire’s nephew and we both know that we need to keep her happy or she’s gonna end all of us.”

“She’s probably gonna end you either way, dragging her nephew so close to the girls,” snorts Barry.

“What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her,” shrugs Zach. Barry and Owen both turn towards him, Barry frowning a little and Owen amused. “If it was up to her I’d spend the whole summer in hamster ball. This is much more interesting.”

The raptors are all fidgety, screeching softly and moving all the time. He takes another step closer to Blue and she sneers at him, so he stops again, but doesn’t move back.

Owen moves to the most vocal raptor to give her the camera. It takes a little longer to calm her down, but he makes it. Then he waves his hand towards Zach, to come closer.

“This is Echo. Echo, Zach. He’s a friend.”

She falls silent when she sees him and for some reason, that’s even more upsetting than Blue’s screeches and sneers. But then, she moves her body so strongly it almost moves the box and lets out a sound close to whine. When Zach makes a step closer she doesn’t sneer, although she chatters a little. He quickly looks at Owen, before making another, small step closer. Suddenly, Owen is right there behind him.

“Wanna pet her?”

“Will she bite my hand off?”

Owen chuckles at that.

“No, she won't… hopefully.”

“Then yes, sure.”

He starts raising his hand, but then Owen takes it in his and guides it closer to Echo. She snorts, but then she calms down, so Owen guides Zach’s hand so it rests on the side of her head. He keeps their hands there for a moment, before slowly moving his own away, so Zach can pet her on his own. He still stays standing right behind him for another moment or so, though.

“That’s it,” he murmurs quietly when Zach slowly moves his hand to pet her better. “Good girl.”

Zach shivers. He’s almost certain it was meant more for Echo than him, but… that low voice of Owen’s, the throaty quality to it…

Owen takes a step back and he exhales in relief.

“Looks like you’ve got it. Be careful, but she shouldn’t be able to do anything to you.”

With that he moves to get the last camera to its place. Zach doesn’t look. He concentrates on Echo and the way her scales feel under his fingers.

“Didn’t you say that there won’t be cameras on all of them anymore last time?”

“For the real shows, yeah. But we’re trying to find out how they react to it, how often each of them can have it before snapping, things like that. Plus, they need to get used to it. Yesterday it was the first time they wore it and they’re not that happy about it, but they didn’t destroy it or anything, so we hope they’ll get used to it eventually. But for that they need to wear it daily. The show will start in another ten minutes or so.”

“Will you again say all the boring shit before you show off your girls?”

Owen grins widely. He likes the kid.

“Not unless you want me to. Come on, you gonna join me on the bridge?”

Zach grins, looking away from Echo while still petting her and Owen almost has a heart attack. Doesn’t the kid know better than to turn his back to predators?

To his surprise, Echo makes a sound close to purring. Zach grins when he looks back at her, patting her for the last time, before making two steps back and turning towards Owen.

“Is it time already?”

***

In short, that’s how he comes to spend most of his time at the raptors arena.

He’s not sure how he makes a routine out of a holiday on the island full of Dinosaurs, but he does. And somehow, it makes him feel better about himself.

He eats breakfast with Zara, usually talking about what their plan for the day is, sometimes Zara talks about the wedding or her fiancé and sometimes Zach gushes about Echo. She might be Owen’s girl, but somehow she always purrs when Zach takes his time to pet her. Then he goes to the raptor’s arena. It’s a fair walk away from the center, so by the time he makes it there it’s usually time for lunch for the girls. If he’s lucky enough, he gets to greet them before. After few days Owen even trusts him enough so he is the one who gets to put the camera on Echo. Barry’s usually there to do so for Delta, so Owen has to take care of only Blue and Charlie. Then it’s hunt time and Zach always, always climbs on the bridge to watch the show. From there he can see them truly hunt. It’s way better than on the cameras.

After the raptors’ lunch it’s time for the human’s one. It’s brought to them by someone from the administration and it’s nothing extra, but usually pretty good anyway. Pizzas are popular around here, but so is Thai.

After that they need to fill forms about the hunt. The only one who has a problem with that is Owen. And because Zach can’t be left anywhere alone (obviously… for some reason), he ends up going to Owen’s office with him and helping him with his reports the first few times around. After that Zach just sits down and does the report himself. It’s quicker that way anyway. Eventually he even kicks Owen out of his own office so he can do the report as quickly as possible. Once he learns how to do it it’s actually pretty quick.

It’s also time to clear the arena. That’s where Owen usually goes when Zach kicks him out of his office. The raptors aren’t there for most of the afternoon. They get to stay there for the whole night and most of the morning, they can spend few hours out of it when employees clean it. Mostly from their shit. There’s usually not much else to clean – the raptors never leave any meat behind, always finding all of the hiding places.

By that time it’s usually time for the last meal for raptors and once again Zach gets up to the bridge to watch them hunt. It quickly became his favorite activity. Petting small herbivores is fine and all but watching the four raptors hunt is fascinating. Not to say that it’s challenging to come up with ways to hide the meal for them so they actually have to work for it.

After that it’s the end of the day for everyone. Some people usually hurry to catch the closest ferry, other people are just glad to have their work done. Of course there always needs to be some security around, but that’s usually just one guy sitting in front of a wall full of screens.

Owen is usually the last one to leave. he takes the opportunity to spend some time with his raptors. He doesn’t go out between them, not entirely. But he goes to the containment cell, so he’s only one set of bars away from them, as close to them as humanly possible without the risk of getting eaten. Or, you know, the risk being as low as it can get with the close proximity of four highly intelligent predators.

Sometimes Barry stays behind with him, but Barry actually has a life outside of the raptors. That’s how it happens that somehow, Zach starts spending time with him and the girls. At first from the safety of completely outside of the arena, but later with Owen with only one set of bars between them and the girls.

Zach gets to know Owen pretty well thanks to that. Owen tells him about his time in the Navy and some stories about the girls when they were growing up. And Zach eats it all up. Owen just seems so interesting and…

And that’s it. Only interesting. Everyone would want to be like Owen so it’s no surprise that Zach loves hearing his stories.

Dinner is the time he should spend with Claire. At least most of the time. Once he even takes Owen with him, but that evening ends in a disaster with Owen stomping away from the restaurant and when Zach tries to say something Claire snaps at him. She then sighs and apologizes to him profoundly, but that doesn’t make it better. He never invites Owen to go with him after that.

Besides, from his dinner with aunt Claire every day becomes dinner three times a week, then once during week and once during weekend and then just once a week, if Claire has the time. It’s not that she doesn’t try, isn’t sorry about how little time they spend together. But the thing is, he’s mostly relieved about it. They just don’t have that many things to talk about. Him helping at the raptors arena helps with that, she certainly seems proud of how quickly he masters the art of filling the forms.

Sometimes he just gets back to the hotel and orders whatever he feels like, puts on some movie and does nothing for few hours before going to bed and repeating all of it. Lately he’s been spending most of his evenings with Owen, though.

His bungalow is really little and… well, messy. But he hardly ever goes inside. Mostly they sit near the lake and grill themselves some dinner. Or Owen grills it, but Zach helps. That’s also where Zach starts to talk a little bit more about himself. Tells him about how he still doesn’t know what he wants to study in college. His parents are adamant that he has to go to college, but he’s already taken some garage classes in school and is fairly certain he could make his living repairing cars. His parents don’t want to hear about it. Other than that he likes music, but he’s not really interested in creating it or mixing it or whatever it is DJs do.

The view of the lake is lovely. It’s also to the west, which means that he usually ends up watching the sunset, so Owen then has to get him to his hotel, because if he went by foot he’d arrive too late for a good night sleep.

It’s also the place where he usually checks his phone after the whole day. It gives him a plausible excuse not to talk to mum too long.

Owen just took the empty plates to his bungalow, getting another beer while he’s at it. Zach’s still nursing the one can Owen allows him per night. He doesn’t always take it, but it goes really well with the burger Owen grilled that night. He takes out his phone and opens the latest text message from Imogen.

She texts him daily. It’s one of the reasons he doesn’t take the phone out before evening. It’s easier to just say that he was too busy and simply answer something simple than answering every single one of those texts. Besides, he’s not lying to her that way.

“Imogen, huh?” comes from behind him. He jerks a little, spilling the beer in his other hand and quickly looks to the other seat where Owen is once again sitting. He’s grinning at him, another open can of beer in hand. With the setting sun in his slightly ginger hair he’s gorgeous.

Zach quickly averts his eyes. That’s another thing that became routine in the last few weeks. This close to him, it’s really hard to ignore how gorgeous he is. And Zach tries, he really, really does, but sometimes… sometimes it’s just too hard. Especially when it’s like that, just the two of them, with the sun setting on the other side of the lake.

“Your girlfriend?” prompts Owen. Zach sighs and puts the phone away. “Claire mentioned her. You’re together for quite some time, aren’t you?”

“Not even a year,” Zach murmurs. Owen raises his eyebrows.

“That’s a long time at high school.”

Zach shrugs and looks down, so he doesn’t see the slightly concerned look Owen’s watching him with.

“Is she hot?”

Zach snorts at that.

“A little bit young for you, don’t you think? Besides, aren’t you taken?”

“Just making conversation. Or trying to. What’s wrong?”

Zach still doesn’t look up, thinking about how to answer that.

“She’s… pretty enough, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Yes, I guess!” Zach snaps and sends Owen a nasty glare. Owen leans back and raises one hand in a placating gesture. Zach can feel himself blush, so he frowns and looks back down. “I just… she’s pretty and clever and popular and everyone tells me what a lucky guy I am, but I just… don’t… feel it?”

He can’t help himself, he looks up when he says that. Owen simply nods, looking thoughtful.

“Is it just her, or…?”

“No, no, it’s… every girl. Every girl I see I stare and try to make myself feel… anything, really. But I just... can’t.”

Owen simply hums and Zach smiles a little at him. He never told anyone that.

“What about boys?”

“What-what about them?”

His voice skips a little and he can feel his cheeks heat up and really, now? He hates himself sometimes. And Owen… Owen grins. What?

“What?”

“You do feel something for boys, don’t you?”

He wants to protest (Owen isn’t exactly a boy after all), but… he remembers Josh Green and the way his heart skips a little when he smiles that small, gentle smile that’s usually reserved for Lydia only. He remembers seeing Tim without his shirt on that one time he met him in a park where he was playing baseball. And Owen. Fuck, he remembers Owen. Staring at his raptors, all stern and dominant so they listen to him. His gentle smile when he pets them. His belly laugh when something truly amuses him.

“Shut up,” he mutters, not really meaning it, but just to say something to cover his panic.

He’s not succeeding in that.

“Hey, hey! It’s okay, it’s fine. It’s like, normal, nowadays. Nobody cares, right?”

Zach wants to laugh and he does, but it’s breathy and broken a little bit.

“Yeah, I guess. But it’s not… I mean, how do I know that? I’ve never… I know kissing Imogen isn’t… doesn’t… I don’t really feel anything doing it, but who’s to say that I will feel something with boys? It’s not like I can’t say girls aren’t attractive and… beautiful and…”

“Hey!” Owen almost yells and gently puts his hand on Zach’s upper arm. When Zach looks up he’s sitting on the verge of his seat, leaning close to Zach and looking lightly worried. “Calm down and breath, okay?”

Zach nods and does as he’s told, not looking away from Owen.

“Okay, so… boys,” Owen smiles a little bit. “Do you find them attractive?” Zach frowns and opens his mouth, but Owen’s already shaking his head at him. “No, don’t think about it. Just answer me, quickly. Do you find boys attractive?”

“Yes.”

“Do you find girls attractive?”

“No.”

“Have you ever found girls attractive?”

“I… don’t know.”

Owen raises his eyebrows at him and Zach wants to scream just a little bit.

“I… I’ve never thought about it that way? I just... always kinda assumed… it was just after I got together with Imogen. The kisses were… boring…?” He sounds unsure and hates himself for it, but Owen simply nods at everything he’s saying, so he continues. “So I started to think about it a little bit more and… I don’t know, I don’t think I did, but I didn’t let myself think about anything else?”

“Makes sense,” Owen nods. “Do you want to kiss girls?”

“No.”

“Do you want to kiss boys?”

“… I’m not sure. I’ve never done it before!”

Owen frowns a little bit, before nodding slowly and moving his hand from Zach’s arm to his neck, to his cheek. Slipping out of his seat and kneeling on one knee right in front of him. Zach gulps a little bit at that. He didn’t realize how close they got.

“Okay. Do you want to try it?”

It takes a few seconds for Zach to process all of that. Sure, now that he’s got it stuck in his head he wants to kiss a boy, but… Owen? Owen is something entirely different. He’s over thirty, to start. Also, he’s Zach’s aunt’s boyfriend.

This isn’t a good idea. It’s probably a very bad idea. But…

“Yes.”

“Okay, fine. I’m gonna kiss you now. Is that okay?”

“Yes.”

The moment he agrees, Owen’s lips are on his own. Dry and chapped, but gentle and soft, moving lightly against his own. Owen’s hand still on his cheek, moving slightly to his hair, just enough so that his thumb can gently caress his cheek. He breaths out and Owen takes his lower lip between his own, biting lightly, just enough to tease with his teeth. Zach moans and that’s what breaks the moment.

Owen leans back and it takes a moment for Zack to realize that he closed his eyes. He opens them again to slightly chuckling Owen.

“Yeah, I think you’ve got your answer here, kid,” he pats him on a shoulder, before going back to his seat and sipping from his can of bear, looking at the lake.

Zach makes himself look away.

Yeah, he’s got an answer to a question he’s been asking himself for some time. And some trouble accompanying that. How is he supposed to break up with Imogen now without it being a dick move? And if he waits until he gets back it will still be weird, because he’s known it for some time. Either way, he’s the asshole.

However, it also brings a lot of new questions. For example – what the fuck is he gonna do with his crush on his aunt’s boyfriend?!

***

After that, Zach’s not sure what to do with himself.

He doesn’t really want to stop with his routine. He likes it. It keeps him busy and he enjoys himself, most of the time. But at the same time he’s not sure how to act around Owen.

Owen is exactly the same he always was around him and somehow that makes it both better and worse. Better, because it gives him a sense that everything is alright, that nothing changed and that Owen still thinks of him as a friend. Mostly. He knows Owen still sees him as a kid, but at least he doesn’t really treat him like a little one. He never did. It’s worse because now he’s painfully aware of how things could be. How Owen kisses...

Seeing him with his aunt is... awkward. He thanks God that doesn’t happen that often.

His earphones help. He never stopped carrying them around, even if for most of the time he left them resting on his shoulders without actually playing any music. He takes to listen to it more now again.

The first time he does it on the bridge above the raptors, the next day after the kiss, the girls get restless and Blue almost jumps up to the bridge. He quickly moves to stop the music and they calm down almost instantly. Owen frowns a little at him.

“Don’t do that again.”

“Yeah. Got it.”

So yeah, he’s careful not to listen to the music around the raptors. He’s not ready to give up his time with them, so he has to get over himself for the time being. It’s not like Owen has time for him when he has to concentrate on his girls, so he’s safe for that time.

He refuses Owen’s offer to come to the bungalow for dinner and Owen accepts it. He doesn’t want to avoid him or anything like that, he just... needs some time for himself.  
Zara senses his new found jitteriness and teases him about it the first breakfast after that, but when he just gets grumpier, she lets it go.

Being around Owen is... difficult. He takes to fidgeting with his phone around him.

That’s how he gets the photo of the raptors. He’s standing on the bridge, few steps away from Owen, and the four of them are standing on the ground. It’s time for their lunch and for the first time in some time, neither one of them has a camera on them. The tech department decided that they’ve got it covered and everyone else is happy with how the girls don’t react to it anymore, so they don’t have to wear it every hunt anymore. Instead the tech department is checking out the stationary cameras this time around.

All four of them are looking up, for once being almost still. The weather is great, like it almost always is on the island and the photo gets out great.

When Owen finally lets them go, Zach has handful of photos. But that one, with all four of them looking up and being still, with the brightly colored jungle behind them, is really great.

He doesn’t really think about it. He simply puts a light filter on it and posts it on Instagram.

Holiday on the Jurrasic Island has its perks #behindthescenes #raptorsquad #comingsoon

He puts the phone away, leans to the railing and looks down at the girls running around in a precise formation, looking for hidden meat, checking out that Charlie eats her fair share of it. He didn’t want to believe it at first, but later noticed that Owen was right – sometimes Charlie leaves the food for Blue. In raptor it means that she has the highest respect for her, but it doesn’t help with the fact that she still needs to eat.

After that he goes to Owen’s office and fills in the report for the hunt. He puts on his earphones on his way there. Owen doesn’t even go with him anymore. He knows the way and knows Owen’s office probably better than Owen himself.

He finishes the report quickly, so he can go say hi to Echo. He wasn’t early that day, came just in time to see their hunt, because he stopped by at the petting zoo with Zara on his way here. She had some free time after breakfast she wanted to spend petting baby Dinosaurs and Zach just enjoyed their conversation so much that before he realized it, he was at the petting zoo with her.

Echo chirps at him through the bars and he laughs a little at that. She’s a wild girl but loves little rubs right under her jaw.

When he comes out again, Claire is there, arguing with Owen. Zach rolls his eyes and sighs at that, before trying to disappear without them noticing him.

“Zach!”

Of course, he’s not so lucky. He turns around to find his aunt marching towards him, dark look on her face. Suddenly, he knows why everyone’s so afraid of her. In pristine white pantsuit, stomping towards him in high heels, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

“What did you do?!”

He blinks at her in surprise.

“Filled in... Owen’s papers? I’ll leave it to him, if you want messy forms never filled in properly.”

“Hey!” Owen’s behind Claire but looks mostly amused.

“Not... that,” Claire waves her hand around. “That.” She thrust the hand with her phone in it towards him. He blinks at it with surprise.

It’s Instagram, loaded on his latest photo.

He quickly takes out his own phone and loads the alerts he has there. Over half million likes and twenty thousand comments!

“What the fuck?”

“Language,” Claire frowns at him a little. “What were you thinking?! What don’t you understand about classified?!”

“I... didn’t realize it’s classified.” Zach’s truly confused. “Isn’t the new exhibit with raptors supposed to open in two, three weeks?”

“Well... yes. But that’s exactly why we’re keeping it tight. We want it to be a big opening.”

“And how do you expect to do that? You hardly did any marketing for it and you expect people are gonna waste so much money on something they don’t even know is gonna be good?”

Raptors can’t really have crowds around, so that’s why the tickets for the show are so expensive. And sure, Zach’s sure that the really rich people are gonna come over just for the chance to see something new, but once that wave is over? It all depends on the marketing.

“We have a marketing department taking care of that.”

“Yeah, right,” snorts Zach. “I follow your park on every social media, remember? There was hardly any marketing done for the raptors, let alone photos of them. People were actually starting to question if they really exist.”

“But... but... we’re known as a serious business.”

“Yeah. With terrible marketing.”

“He’s got a point. You know that.”

Zach tries not to let Owen’s support make him feel all giddy inside, but it’s hard.

“This is actually very good for you. In fact, you’re welcome.”

“Welcome?!”

“I just gave you free advertisement. You know what, let’s make a small experiment – I put it on twitter, too, and if I get ten thousand retweets, we’ll let this go, I’m not in trouble and you get free marketing.”

Claire sets her jaw tight, but there’s the kind of look in her eyes telling Zach that she’s fully in the business mode.

“And if it doesn’t get ten thousand retweets?”

Zach shrugs, but can feel his throat getting a little tight. Let’s gamble.

“I won’t be coming back to the raptors paddock unless for a show, which I will sit in a proper seat for. I’ll leave everyone to do their job.”

“So I have to read Owen’s messy, incomplete reports again?”

“Okay, now I’m starting to take this personally.”

Zach can feel his lips itching to smile, but he keeps staring at aunt Claire. She wants to do business, he’ll do business with her.

“You will be on all the shows, including the morning ones, behind the scenes and you will then fill Owen’s report for him. For the rest of the summer.”

Either he gets completely out of trouble or he will be too busy to think about Owen all the damn time. Win-win if he ever saw one.

“Deal.”

***

The tweet gets fifteen thousand retweets in the first hour. In a week the number stops on half a million retweets.

It also starts the trending of #raptorsquad

The Jurrasic World’s marketing team rolls with it and makes it the center of the most successful marketing strategy in the park’s history.

Zach starts thinking about marketing and PR as his major in college. How difficult can it be, anyway?

***

Owen’s been working in the park for close to three years now. Sure, he got the job through InGen, but he’s not proud of it and he’s severed all connections to that group as soon as he could after the Christmas almost-catastrophe. He can’t believe InGen actually thought mixing T-Rex and raptor DNA was a good idea. They were all lucky that Claire can keep a level head back then. If she just hurried back to the operation center before confirming that the... thing (Owen doesn’t like calling animals that, but what else can you call a hybrid that’s been raised in complete isolation?) was out of the cage, they’d all be probably dead by now.

Luckily, she did try to confirm it only to find out that it was still in the cage. That prompted an inside investigation about what is it InGen is really doing and what they want from the park. When Simon Masrani found out, he quickly cut all ties he had with them. Claire had to work over time for good two months and for a while it looked like Owen will be sucked into the middle of it all, but luckily, their lawyers proved to be very good.

The real law war is still going on, with InGen and Masrani fighting for every piece of information the scientists discovered while on the island, but the InGen is gone. Including, to Owen’s relief and pleasure, Hoskins. But Owen’s staying, because Masrani’s lawyers were able to pry him away from InGen’s hands. It cost them a lot of information from what he can gather, but Masrani refused to let him go. Knowing the raptor’s potential and that only Owen is able to work with that group of them, he was willing to pay in gold for him to stay. Owen can’t complain, really.

Nowadays, he considers his days at the island... domestic, almost. He has his routine with just the right amount of chaos on it to keep him occupied. He wouldn’t have it any other way. And since they started performing for public he’s been more than busy.

But now it’s holiday again. And that means one thing. Zach Mitchell is coming to the island again.

He and Claire broke up about a week after the Mitchell brothers left last summer. They weren’t really working out and for some months the only thing they did was fighting. Sure, the sex was great at the beginning, but Owen is starting to understand why you can’t base a relationship only on sex. They didn’t have anything to talk about other than work and they mostly fought about work. They didn’t agree on multiple things regarding dinosaurs and while they each had deep respect for the kind of job the other has, they just couldn’t make it work for themselves.

Truth be told, Owen thinks that they’d break up much sooner if Zach wasn’t there for the summer. That way it was only another thing Claire had to worry about and Owen...

Owen went and kissed the boy. While still dating his aunt who had no idea about the kiss. He should feel terrible about that, he knows he should. Yet when he thinks about the kiss it’s always the softness of his mouth that’s in his head. The way with which he leaned into Owen’s touch. How warm and soft his skin was. How his moan made Owen shudder, his hot mouth making him wish for more...

He tried to convince himself that he reacted that strongly to a simple kiss simply because he hadn’t get laid in ages. Claire was too busy, they kept odd hours that never seemed to align for them to spend some time together, but Owen would never cheat. So by that time it was weeks since he got laid last time. That was the reason, not the attractive, clever, funny young man kissing him. Or so he kept telling himself that evening, when he was once again alone with his right hand.

But since then he had plenty sex. Women, some men, just as long as it stayed light hearted and mostly restricted to one night only. So he’s totally ready for the teenage nephew of his ex-girlfriend.

He sees him the day after he’s supposed to arrive. He’s with his raptors, of course, when Echo screeches and moves a little to the right. When he looks over, Zach is just slipping his phone to his pocket and putting his earphones on his shoulders. It’s a sight he hasn’t seen in ten months, yet it’s painfully familiar.

“Hey, Zach.”

“Hi, Owen.”

He grew up. Not by much. Owen’s pretty sure he’s still taller than him, but not by much now. The baby fat disappeared completely from his face and he looks relaxed, more himself than last year at this time.

His smile is almost blinding and his eyes turn gentle when he steps up to Echo without a trace of fear in his movement, raising his hand slowly, to show that it’s not threat, and keeping it up just few inches away from her, so she can sniff it before letting him pet her.

There’s still a set of bars between them, but Owen’s almost, almost certain that it doesn’t have to be there for Zach to be safe with her. But then again he feels the same about himself and Blue and isn’t stupid enough to go without the set of bars between him and her. He might be a little bit crazy, but he’s not suicidal.

“Back for the summer?”

“Sure. But this time around, I have my own work. Sorry, you’ll still have to fill your own paperwork.”

He smiles at him in a cheeky way and fuck, but he is still just a boy. A very attractive, very sexy boy.

“Don’t feel too sorry. I’m certain I’m about a month away from driving your aunt mad enough for her to let me get out of it entirely.”

Zach smiles a little awkwardly at that.

“How are you two anyway?”

Owen frowns a little bit. Sure, he hasn’t talked to Zach in ten months, but surely Claire did. He knows for a fact that she took five days off for Christmas and actually flew to her sister’s for holidays this time around. Surely she told him...

“Hasn’t Claire told you? There’s no us two anymore.”

“Oh, thank God,” Zach breaths out, obviously relieved. Then he stops and reddens a little in his cheeks. “I mean... You two were terrible together.”

Owen chuckles at that.

“Yeah, you’re right about that. We broke it off last September. I thought she’d tell you.”

Zach frowns a little bit, leaning a little bit closer to Echo. Owen’s surprised to find that his heart starts beating much faster and he keeps his eyes focused on Echo. She purrs and nudges as close to Zach as possible, but still. How Zach manages to turn her into such a putty Owen will never know.

... probably.

“We don’t really... understand each other.”

“Didn’t you just say that you have work here? Didn’t she make that happen for you?”

“It’s more of an... internship. Paid internship, which is really, really cool, but still. Plus, I’m pretty sure mum begged her for it. Her exboyfriend is a jackass.”

“Wait a minute, exboyfriend? I thought she was married.”

“Yeah, that was before our first visit. She shipped me out last summer because I thought her new boyfriend was an asshole. Turns out I was right. A homophobic one to that,” Zach simply shrugs, but he looks smug for some reason.

“So, you came out to your parents?”

“Yeah. Mum’s boyfriend almost kicked me out of the house, before mum reminded him that it’s actually her house. Dad on the other hand got really, really quiet for some time. Next time we were over, he gave me condoms and practically begged me to not make him go through the sex talk again.”

Owen snorts when he hears that. But he breaths a little lighter when he hears it. Not that he was too worried. Claire might be a little cold at the first glance, but she is no bigot. You can’t really be a woman in position of power and hold so outdated ideas like homophobic ideology. But she isn’t her sister and hasn’t been in contact with her in years, so who knows what that sister is like.

“So no problems?”

“Well, there were some slurs thrown around when I took a guy to my prom, but... who cares,” he shrugs.

“What about your girlfriend?”

“Broke up with her as soon as I got home. She... she threw a fit, alright, but she’s over it now. We went out for a coffee before I flew out. It’s cool.”

“Cool, huh? Do people still say it?”

“Well, no, but... you know. Trying to keep the language age appropriate around here.”

Owen doesn’t really have to act out the outrage this time around.

“I’m not old!”

Zach simply laughs at him. It would be annoying if it wasn’t so damn endearing.

Zach stays for the next exhibition, this time around standing up where the seats for public are. Somehow, that’s worse than it ever was last year when he was standing right next to Owen.

It doesn’t help that somehow, for the first time... ever, probably, he actually feels old. Sixteen years is a lot. And he can’t believe that he turned into one of the perverts who go after teenagers.

Not that he will go after him. He might feel a weird tightness in his chest every time he sees him smile, but that doesn’t mean that he will try anything. The sixteen years age difference is one thing and big enough problem on its own. But then there’s also the fact that he dated his aunt. Talk about awkwardness.

***

He doesn’t see him after that. Yet, somehow, Owen starts feeling weird about it.

Zach’s busy. He doesn’t have the time to hang around the raptors paddock the same way he did last year. And that’s good. It’s a great opportunity for him. He might not have been employed last year, but he still helped them around here. So his paid internship is well deserved and Owen wishes him the best with it.

But Owen misses him. God knows why. It’s not like he’s seen him in the ten months when Zach was home. They didn’t even exchange numbers, so they couldn’t even text now and again. And he was fine with that. Zach might be incredibly attractive, but he was still just a kid. His eighteenth birthday shouldn’t have changed anything about that.

And it’s not the fact that he’s eighteen now. Not entirely. More like... he seemed more relaxed, more himself. Happier. His eyes bright and posture proud and somehow, that’s what makes it impossible for Owen to stop thinking about him.

Besides, hanging out with him last summer was fun and Owen might have been looking forward to do it again this year. But Zach’s too busy. Doesn’t even come over to his bungalow to hang out after work. And Owen realizes how lonely his bungalow really is. Grilling himself steak isn’t as fun as he remembers it being.

He has a routine surrounding the shows for public. He parades his girls around, before letting them run off. He needs to be there for the whole time, if something went wrong or if someone wanted to ask something. He usually takes that time to look around, look at the faces of the people that are watching his girls. Check that everyone is happy, or if not that then at least satisfied. Once the show is over he goes to the guys behind the scenes, making sure there’s no problem there. Lastly he checks with security, in the small room full of screens showing cameras from all around the arena – the one on one of his girls, all the stationary ones for public and the few others they have there for security purposes. And some cameras on people, to make sure that nothing goes wrong among them, either.

About two weeks after Zach comes back to the island, he finds him in the small space between the door and the chair for the security guy. He’s wearing what has to be his work clothes – a white shirt with short sleeves and with top three buttons open, so that out peaks the equally white tank top underneath it, and black, tight jeans (and holy shit, that ass in those-no, Owen, don’t look at his ass, he’s hardly eighteen, don’t look at his ass!) and his hair is a little bit messy, like he ran his fingers through it throughout the whole day. Owen will never understand how people can wear long trousers in that heat. He also has arms folded on his chest and is biting his lower lip in a thoughtful way.

“Something wrong?”

“Everything’s alright,” answers James, the security guy, lazily. Owen frowns a little, but just nods thankfully at him. Never a good idea to make an enemy out of a security.

“Zach?”

Zach just frowns a little bit more and turns towards the screen where the feed from Echo’s camera plays.

“They’re... restless, aren’t they?”

Owen gives him one fondly amused look.

“You do realize that camera is on Echo, right? She isn’t exactly the definition of calm on the best day.”

“Maybe, but look at Blue,” Zach taps at another screen. Blue is running in a circle there, screeching and sneering. She finds the meat without any problem, yet she keeps running around. Delta gets in her way at one moment and they almost collide. “She’s fretful, too. If I’d have to guess, they’re feeling...”

“Caged,” Owen finishes without looking at Zach. He’s jumping from one screen to another, from one raptor to the next.

Zach’s right. They’re more than just full of energy, ready for a hunt. They’re getting restless. And that’s dangerous.

How did he not notice?

“We can’t keep making shows,” he mutters, mostly to himself. But being quiet never was one of his strong suits.

“Aunt Claire will never agree,” Zach argues. “The tickets are too damn expensive to just cancel already sold out shows. And they are sold out at least a month in advance. We need to come up with a solution quickly, and if possible without messing with the current timetable.”

Owen growls and runs one hand through his hair, frustrated. Mostly with himself.

The girls are his. He knows them the best, he can read them like no one else. He knows very well that they’re predators, makes sure that every new employee knows and truly realizes that. So how could he forget about it?

“Caged,” he mutters once again, thinking back to the Indominus Rex, how she lived all her life caged in one arena that was too small for her and suddenly feels disgusted with himself.

Sure, his girls have each other and him, but... that doesn’t make it better. They used to be at a smaller facility, but he doubts they remember it. And even if they did, they’ve spent too much time in this arena. It doesn’t matter that they have each other, it doesn’t matter that they have him. They’re still caged.

“We need more space for them.”

Zach frowns a little bit, his eyes focused on Owen, but nods.

“That should be... doable. Anything else we can do?” He hesitates, but Owen nods at him to continue. “What about the dead meat? I know they probably don’t always get the same animal in there, but...”

“It’s still dead meat,” Owen nods, easily following Zach’s thoughts. “Come on, we can talk on our way out. Either way we need to talk to Claire.”

Zach nods and hurries after him. Owen slows down a little when he notices that Zach can’t match his quick strides, but not by much.

“We originally used it for a tracking exercise. Of course living animals would be better,” he continues their talk without a problem. “But that’s just impractical from logistic point of view. Finding enough prey for three different times a day, all the damn time... Not to say what some people would say about that. Animal cruelty and all of that.”

“Not if we frame it right.” When Owen looks back, Zach has his head bowed down a little, clearly thinking. So he takes his upper arm and steers him the right way. Zach seems to hardly notice. “I can probably take care of that. Ugh, we can,” he adds, a little embarrassed. “But never mind that. Aunt Claire is supposed to be in a meeting till seven today.”

“We’ll just have to check in the operation center if she didn’t end up early,” shrugs Owen. “You have access there, right?”

“Not really,” Zach shrugs. “But I’ve been there before, so it shouldn’t be a problem. We can wait for her in her office. That I have access to.”

“Great. Do you still not have your license?”

“Shut up,” groans Zach, his laser eyes finally disappearing. Now he simply rolls his eyes, suddenly looking tired. Or maybe it’s not so sudden, but suddenly Owen is painfully aware of how soft he is in his tiredness. “Of course I have my license. Took the test again practically the moment I came back home. But considering I walked over here, sure, we can take your bike.”

Once again Owen gives Zach his helmet. This time, he doesn’t comment that he has only one, just raises his eyebrows at him. Owen rolls his eyes.

“Forgive me for leaving my extra helmet at my bungalow. Again.”

“Didn’t say anything.”

Owen get on his bike and while Zach’s getting the helmet on starts it. Zach soon follows him, hugging him tightly and Owen tries to ignore how he likes the way Zach's smaller, leaner body presses to his back. He wants to stay still for a moment and just enjoy it, but they have a more pressing matter on their hands, so he takes off almost instantly. It doesn’t take long to arrive to the building where most of the important stuff is, including Claire’s office and operational center. Owen might have taken the longer route, just to feel Zach pressed close to him, but... what’s another minute on the way there, right?

They walk right to the elevator, Owen puts his employee badge towards it and they’re let in easily. When the door opens again they’re in the middle of operation room. Owen looks behind a little bit, to check on Zach, but he doesn’t look impressed.

Damn, is it hard to impress the kid.

Lowery looks up and beams at them.

“Hey, Owen!” He takes his enormous cup of soda off the table and jogs up the few steps to them. “What brings you by?”

“We’re looking for Claire.”

“Zara said that she’s in a meeting. Any chance you can check for us if it didn’t end early?”

Lowery looks at Zach, surprised to see him.

“Hi! Uh... Zach, right? Claire’s nephew?”

Zach nods, but Owen can see how dismayed he is over it. It’s all in the stubborn way he puts his chin a little bit higher.

“Yes, that’s me. Now, aunt Claire...?”

Lowery sips from his cup for a while, looking back to the screens in the room and Owen can see the temper in Zach growing. But he also knows that the tight set of shoulders means that he’s setting in for the long battle, not to blow out here and now but to raise above that and show everyone that he’s better.

And fuck, this is getting creepier with every new thing Owen discovers Zach shares with his aunt.

“I’m not sure...”

“He’s an intern in here and we think we’ve got a big thing that we need to see Claire about asap. Come on, Lowery, it really is an emergency.”

“Something happened during the show? I’m pretty sure we’d know...”

“No, that’s not... ugh!” Now it’s Owen’s time to fume. And he doesn’t have enough self-control to keep it back.

“Look, if she’s in the meeting, we’re just gonna go wait for her in her office. I have access there, so that’s not a problem. We would still appreciate it if you contact her as soon as she’s out of the meeting to tell her we’re waiting, but we can manage ourselves. But if she’s already out... we really need to catch her today.”

Zach smiles at Lowery, all sweet and a little apologetic (which is obviously fake, but Lowery doesn’t know that) and Owen’s once again in awe of what diplomacy can achieve. As long as it’s not Owen doing diplomacy.

Lowery sighs, but nods and turns around to get back to his station. Zach sends a quick smirk to Owen (he knew the sweetness was an act!) and goes after him.

It takes him only a minute to start some facial recognition program and then just a few seconds for it to run properly before they see Claire’s face on his screen, accompanied by the faces of various old men sitting around one table with her. She has a glass of wine in her hand, but it’s still mostly full while the glasses all around the table are at least half empty. However, it’s obvious that the meeting isn’t at its end yet.

“Thank you, mister...”

Owen snorts so loud that some of the people around them turn to face him.

“Oh, hell no. Zach, this is Lowery. He’s a master... hacker, or whatever it is he does here. Lowery, Zach is the PR genius who started our big campaign for the raptors last year.”

“Oh! That Instagram photo was you?”

“Well,” now Zach’s all sheepish and Owen really shouldn’t find it so endearing. “I know it was... breaching of security or whatever. But I didn’t know it back then!”

“Are you kidding me? That was genius!”

“Thanks,” Zach’s smile is much more honest this time around. “Can I ask you something? You guys control everything from here, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Lowery leans back in his chair and almost makes it topple over in the process. “What do you want to know?”

“The north part of the island. Every map I’ve seen says that it’s restricted. Just that, though, nothing else. Is there something going out there?”

“That’s-”

“Not anymore,” answers Owen. He knows what Zach’s getting at there and he can’t say he didn’t have the same idea.

Zach nods, but doesn’t look away from Lowery.

“I suppose that the area is restricted for civilians. Probably safely secured...?”

“Well, the area itself has some security, but the paddock after the I-Rex is the most secure location on the island.”

Which is why Owen thinks that it will be perfect for his girls. At least for now. The arena is not that much bigger than the raptors paddock, but it’s still not the same and the girls should be calmed down by that fact alone. There might be a problem with transportation, but he’s sure he can figure it out as soon as he gets some space to think it through.

“I-Rex...?”

When he quickly looks at Zach, he’s watching them with those focused eyes of his and Owen kinda wants to die rather than tell Zach about the I-Rex. And that’s only partly because if Claire finds out he was the one to tell her nephew about it, she’s gonna be pissed.

“Um, yeah, that’s... uh... classified?” But Lowery looks and sounds unsure. Zach frowns, a dark look in his eyes.

“I’d love to tell you about it, but it’s kinda boring and your aunt would kill me if I did, so... let’s just say that they needed to keep something extra safe, fucked it up anyway and it’s now there without any real use. Thanks for the info, Lowery, but we’d better go.”

On their way there and then even in Claire’s office, Owen explains how he thinks the best think to do right now would be to get his raptors to the paddock up north, set there some prey free and let them hunt it. He’s not sure about how people or even laws would feel about that, but that’s when Zach opens up google and starts to look up hunting laws in the US. Owen thinks that’s kinda bonkers, considering his raptors are still animals, so those laws shouldn’t apply to them, and Zach agrees, but he argues that it’s better than nothing if they want to argue the legitimacy of them serving the raptors the animals almost on a silver tray and okay, he has a point there.

So he leaves Zach to that, instead thinking about how to transport his girls up north. It’s not a long road, not at all, but he’s worried that by now they’re so restless that they wouldn’t go to any moving vehicle voluntarily, making their transport more difficult. Of course, they can still shoot them with tranquil shots, maybe even ones that would make them sleep. He doesn’t like those things, especially not in relation to his raptors, but he probably won’t have a choice.

So in the end, all that’s left to do is figure out the dose of the sleeping drug so his raptors get knocked down for enough time for the transport and how to make sure that after the hunt they’ll want to get back to their own paddock.

Oh, and convince Claire that their plan is not only right, but also urgently needed.

Claire walks in few minutes before eight with three boxes of pizza in hands and a stormy expression on her face.

“I just spent three hours kissing assess of the most disgusting men I’ve had the misfortune of meeting. This better be good.”

Owen’s on his feet already, taking the boxes from her and ready to sweet talk her a little before dropping the bomb. But Zach’s quicker than him. Somehow.

“It’s not,” he declares bluntly. “The raptor squad is restless and if we don’t do something to relax them soon, we’ll have a catastrophe in our hands. God bless you for the pizza.”

He takes one of the boxes from Owen and plops down on the couch with it, opening it in the process and immediately taking one piece of it. Owen makes a face at it.

“You like pineapple on pizza?”

“God no. But I didn’t catch lunch today, so the last thing I ate was breakfast and that was just a donut with my coffee.”

“Hawaii is for me. The other two are pepperoni.” Claire looks exasperated but fond when she takes the box and the piece that was chewed from already from Zach.

“Thank you!”

They sit around, Claire even kicking out of her shoes to make herself comfortable. It’s after hours for everyone, after all, so they all deserve to be as comfortable as possible.

They eat their first pieces in silence, but then Claire sits up straighter and asks them what’s wrong. So they talk. Well, it’s mostly Owen who talks, but Zach starts with how he noticed it, Owen then taking over, even adding bits and pieces of things from the last year that now come back to him with new urgency, realizing what was really happening back then. Hindsight and all. Claire agrees that it is a dangerous situation, so they can move right to their plan.

She’s not happy that Zach knows about the paddock that used to house the Indominus Rex. Her intense eyes focused on Owen and his explanations turn downright evil at one point, but she doesn’t interrupt him so he figures he’s safe for now. She points out every single one of the counterpoints they came up with in the time they were waiting for her, but thanks to that they’re ready for it.

In the end, it’s just the matter of what prey to use.

“I’m still not sure,” sighs Claire finally, after Owen talks for five minutes about the importance of living prey for the raptors to relax a bit. “Can you imagine if animal rights activists got hold of that information?”

“So we won’t make a secret out of it,” shrugs Zach. Claire frowns and turns her intense look towards him, but he hardly notices. His eyes are bright and he looks almost excited. “Secrets are dangerous. When they get out, it’s not you setting the tone, it’s the one releasing the information. If you don’t keep secrets, you are the one who sets the narrative.”

“Wait a minute. As far as I know, you were just accepted to college. How the fuck do you know this shit?”

He’s almost expecting Claire to tell him off for the language, but she doesn’t even blink. Zach smiles at him brightly.

“It’s simple logic. If we make a post about it, or maybe just Owen says something about it during his last show before the hunt and then we post photos of it, we set the talk. When someone asks about what they’re hunting, and they will ask, we answer truthfully. Raptors are big predators, there’s no other way about it. They wanna talk about the natural order of things? Let’s see how a pack of wolfs fare against our girls. Or better yet, a bear.”

And fuck. Zach is practically glowing with excitement. Owen can almost see all the ideas for future posts and photos dancing behind his sparkling eyes and Owen feels himself melting in the face of it.

Claire stares at Zach for a minute, before her lips curl into a smile.

“A bear, huh? You sure we won’t get in trouble for it?”

Zach shrugs.

“I mean, I’m no lawyer. They should look into it. But from the little googling I did, hunting bears is legal for people, so I see no reason why we couldn’t get them imported for raptors. The real trouble right now is time.”

“I know we can’t just cancel shows,” adds Owen, “but I don’t feel comfortable with having people around my girls before we at least try that hunt.”

Claire sighs and rubs her temples.

“I’ll contact our lawyers and get some other people to work on this. Owen, you will be one of them. If we can’t come with a plan till tomorrow afternoon, I’ll look into the near future and into the ticketholders for the raptor’s show and contact them myself about rescheduling their stay or cancelling the raptor’s show in exchange of other benefits. You’ll probably have to perform for at least three days either way, maybe even a week, but I’ll do what I can do to get you some free time.”

“You should also contact Zigotskij about the PR approach to that. If I talk about it before he even knows something’s going on, work will be hell for the rest of the summer.”

Claire drums her fingers against a hand rest of her armchair.

“Yes. Don’t go to your usual place in the morning. Sleep in and get right here. At ten AM I’m expecting you in my office. You’ll be leading the team responsible for raptors from now on.”

Zach blinks at her in surprise.

“We don’t have a team for raptors.”

“We do now. And you, young man, are exhausted. Don’t make me send you to your room like a small kid.”

Zach goes limp and moans at that. Owen quickly moves the now empty box of his pizza into his lap when he hears that.

“I don’t think I can move right now. And we should probably let Zara know that she should start her day by cancelling all your plans for tomorrow. And maybe even few days after that.”

“Oh God, is workaholism genetic or something? My head hurts just looking at you two. I’m declaring the end of the sad pizza party. You can hold each other up on your way to your flats.”

Zach smiles at him slowly and he suddenly has to hold back an image of this Zach, tired and soft, curled up in his arms as he takes him to his, theirs bed.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. I guess I’ll be seeing you more now, when I’m in charge of the raptors squad PR.”

“It’s pack. Raptors pack.”

“Not according to twitter.”

***

Claire is a miracle worker.

She can’t stop shows from happening, but she does the next best thing – she pushes all the teams of lawyers and other workers so in three days they’re ready for his girls to go on their first real hunt. They’ll be hunting some deer, hare and a coyote. Oh, and geese. Because all of those are animals permitted to hunt by the law of United states... or something. They’re all delivered right to the paddock after the I-Rex the day before the hunt itself.

It’s a little more complicated to move their girls and Owen isn’t happy that in the end they need to put them to sleep for the way there, but he knows that there’s no other way.  
The evening show is shorter than usually, but Owen apologizes and tells the people attending that show that his girls are going for a real hunt, asking them to keep it quiet, of course.

So naturally, by the time they make it to the I-Rex paddock, the social media is buzzing with rumors about raptors getting out of control and going wild, on their own hunt.

Zach snorts when he sees it. He’s been with them almost nonstop for the last three days. Mostly because his own team, made up from three of the meanest people Owen’s ever met, doesn’t really take him seriously. So he has to go and do practically everything himself.

“You can always trust the peoples’ need to gossip. Hey, girls,” he smiles when the containments behind Owen shutter and the screeches and sneers start to sound in the night’s air. “Could you be still for a few moments, look out of the window you have in your doors? I need a good photo for this.”

Owen gives him one, unbelieving look.

“You’re crazy.”

“Crazy amazing. Now, smile!”

Owen doesn’t smile. Instead, he leans in on his bike and growls a little. Zach laughs, but takes the photo.

Owen’s going to hunt with his girls. He’s maybe a little nervous about it, being locked in one arena with them, but mostly he’s excited. He has his bike so he can keep up with them and to be honest, he’s kinda looking forward to it.

Maybe he is just the tiniest bit suicidal.

The containment shakes again and Owen looks back, before looking back at Zach, worried.

“You should leave. Now.”

Zach rolls his eyes, but nods.

“Good luck out there. I’m right over there, on radio, if you need anything. See ya.”

Owen’s man enough to admit that he breaths much easier once Zach disappears in the secure building. Then he turns toward the containments. He has remote control that will open all four of them.

He breaths in, deeply, and clicks the button.

Echo runs out of hers first, marching through everything and screeching all the while, loud and clear. Blue is right behind her, but she runs to Owen, stopping right in front of him and screaming right into his face. Owen grimaces.

“Yeah, that’s fair, I deserve that. Sorry about the sleeping darts, but see how you react now? How were we supposed to move you with you awake?”

She screams some more, before settling a little bit, turning around, and checking on Charlie, swinging her tail in clear dismiss of Owen. Well, he does deserve that.

Delta doesn’t do any of that, just runs out, stops in her movements, and cocks her head a little, sniffing the air. Owen grins.

“You feel it, girl, right? So,” he starts his bike. “Are we ready for the hunt?”

They don’t wait for him. He sighs but goes after them. He couldn’t expect them to listen to him when he betrayed them like that. Besides, if he really wanted them to stop and wait for him, he should have had the gate installed the same way they have it in their own paddock.

Maybe some other time, if they’re going to use this more often.

By the time he catches up with them, Echo is halfway through a deer, Charlie just caught a hare (and look at that, eating it takes about the same time it does to eat a rat) and Blue and Charlie are playing with a flock of geese, herding them this way and that way, trapping them between the two of them. Owen sighs when he sees that. That took even less time than he expected.

It turns out it wasn’t just that easy. Sure, deer are easy to catch, but catching the individual geese and hare? That’s trickier. Especially the hare. Once the geese are trapped they panic, running almost to his girls open jaws, but hare? They’re quick and small enough to miss easily. He’s sure they will figure it out eventually, but right now they’re big enough challenge that his girls should be satisfied with this hunt. The coyote, on the other hand, turns out to be a disappointment. Once all four girls team up it doesn’t stand a chance. Maybe bring more of them next time? And some other animals that will put up a fight. Not wolves and bears (Zach was right that technically, it’s legal to shoot them, but mostly only when you’re protecting yourself or your property. They’re still endangered), but maybe boar...

About two hours after they started, it’s deep night and they’re all done. They come back to the gate, the girls keeping their distance from the transportation containments, but teasing each other, playing together. Owen realizes that’s another thing he hasn’t seen in a while. He stops his bike with a smile and steps away from it. He parked just few steps away from the door to the secure building, but the moment the bike stops rumbling, Blue’s here and he gets nervous again. Sure, she should be full by now, but... you never know.  
Instead, she preens a little, cocking her head to the side, before making a small step closer to him, and headbutting his chest. It shocks a laugh out of him. She didn’t do that since she was just a baby.

“And hello to you, too,” he speaks softly. He raises his hand and gently, slowly lowers it to her jaw. She screeches, before turning away, turning around (hitting him with her tail) and running back to her sisters. Owen hesitates for a moment, before making a step closer to them.

He tries to make them move to the containments again, but they refuse to do so. When Charlie snatches and almost bites his hand off, he backs off. He thinks for a while, before taking his radio.

“Hey, Zach, do we have over the frozen rats I asked for?” He waits for a moment, before speaking up again. “Zach, do you copy?” He waits again, but much less patiently this time. “Zach!”

When no answer comes even now, he starts to slowly back away, back to the door to the secure building. The girls aren’t paying attention to him anymore, but he’s not reckless enough to turn his back to them. Not even now.

But once he makes it inside the building, he turns and runs up the set of stairs. He finds Zach in the observation room. He’s sitting in a chair that was left behind by the security, feet kicked up to the table where once were screens overlooking the arena, leaning back and sleeping. His mouth is open just a little bit and he’s snoring quietly and Owen stops where he’s standing, just looking at him for a while. He’s all soft like that and the bags under his eyes are even more prominent for it. And Owen just wants to wrap him up in the softest blanket and hide him in his own bed.

Yeah, he’s in trouble.

There’s a phone in Zach’s hand, so he takes it before it gets the chance to fall down. It lights up just as he’s setting it on the table, an alert about someone commenting... the park’s photo?

He feels just a bit guilty when he slides the screen open. It disappears when he realizes that there’s no kind of password to get into the phone. And who doesn’t set a password of some kind on their phone nowadays?

It opens up to an Instagram photo on the park’s profile. It’s the one Zach took downstairs – with Owen on his bike, leaning on it with a kind of predatory smile he’s not aware he had on his face back then. There are the containments behind him, in clear view but without the girls peaking out of it, because of course they wouldn’t do something like that only because he asked.

Our daring raptor leader is all set for tonight’s hunt! More info coming soon to our Facebook page #huntingseason #raptorsquad #daringraptorleader #jurassicworld

He chuckles when he sees it, setting the phone on the table. Then he sighs and goes looking for the rats.

He finds them back down, in the same hall with the door to the arena. There’s a sort of cabinet in there and in it some rats that were obviously frozen just few hours ago. There’s also a small bucket nearby, so Owen just gets all the rats into the bucket and moves out again.

The girls are all huddled together, on the verge of a jungle, as far away from the containments as possible.

“Hey, Blue!” he calls out, because God knows that if he gets Blue inside one of them he’s basically won. “You want a rat?”

That’s a word they know by now, which is why they cock their heads and Blue takes a step out of the huddle and towards him. He smiles and throws her a rat. She catches it easily and makes another two steps closer to him.

“Good girl, now, come on, come with me.” He steps back, closer to the containments. She sneers but takes another step closer. “Want another one?” He takes it out of the bucket and Blue takes three quick steps closer. “See, you can do it. You want a rat? You need to go and take it.”

He throws it into one of the containments. He’s certain it’s the one where Delta was on her way here, not Blue, but he doesn’t think anything will make Blue go back to her own containment.

She screeches and takes a step back, sneering at Owen personally. Owen sighs. So this tactic isn’t working.

He talks to her some more, pleads and whistles and clicks his tongue, but there’s nothing he can do to actually make her go there.

He tries it next with her own containment, but she actually turns her back to him and goes back to the rest of the girls after that. Once again – he probably deserves that.

He goes back to the building, still not turning his back to the raptors, but somehow feeling more at ease with them than ever before.

He checks on Zach, but he’s still sleeping. His head is in an awkward angle and Owen smiles when he sees it, before taking the long distance radio they took with them.

“Operation center? Here’s Owen.” He lets go and waits for an answer. He doesn’t have to wait for long.

“So you’re still alive?” And of course it’s Lowery taking the late shift in the center for their little adventure. Zach makes a sound and almost falls back, but Owen’s there to steady the chair and move it away from the table a little bit. Zach’s feet hit the floor hard and he moves again, but in the end he just mutters something and goes back to sleep. Owen takes the radio and moves it to the corner with the big windows in it. He sits on the floor and looks out, checking on his girls.

“Of course I’m alive, asshole. Can we have some more containments move in here? The girls won’t go back into those already here.”

There’s a pause, but he’s not in a hurry.

“Sure there are, but there’s not enough people right now. There’s only night security out of the tourists center and the people in the center aren’t competent enough to deal with dinosaurs.”

Owen frowns a little, looking back at Zach.

“Is there someone who could pick up Zach? The idiot fell asleep in a chair.”

“He’s still there?” Lowery sounds surprised and Owen frowns a little. Wasn’t that the plan? “Sure, I’ll call to the hotel. I’m sure there’s someone with a license bored enough to go for a little joy ride. Can he wait for them in front of the arena, where the parking lot is?”

“Sure. Let me know when the ETA will be.”

It’s quiet for a moment and when he looks out, he has to search for his girls for a while, but when he finds them, he almost has the urge to aww at them. They’re all lying in one big pile of bodies, Blue closest to the containments and Charlie in the safest place among all of them.

“They just got the key to one of the company jeeps. They should be there in about forty minutes,” comes Lowery’s voice from the radio and Owen automatically checks his watches. It’s kinda hard to see, but when he angles his wrist just right for the moon light to set on them, he can see alright.

“Thanks. Hey, I know you said you can’t miss that many people right now, but can you maybe miss one person? They can pile up four containments to one truck and I can deal with the things on my end.”

The silence is full of judgement and Owen sometimes really hates Lowery.

“Are you sure? We needed a small team to move them there.”

“Yeah, because they were agitated and weren’t talking to me. I should be able to get them to some containments that aren’t the ones we moved them in here. If not, I’ll let your guy go and we can think about a better plan for when more people arrive.”

Lowery sighs, half exasperated, half tired.

“Sure, I’ll look into it. Get some rest in the meantime. I’ve got tomorrow off, but we all know you’ll have to do the morning show.”

Owen wants to protest, but... Lowery’s right. He needs to do all the shows like usually. He can do it, he’s sure. But resting is a good idea.

He sets an alarm in thirty minutes, so he can wake up Zach and get him to the parking lot. Hopefully Lowery will have some news about the transport by then.

***

The next day, he doesn’t see Zach at all. He... might be a little disappointed by that. Just a little bit.

Instead of Zach there’s some girl in her twenties in short shorts and a tank top making eyes at him the whole day. She won’t step on the bridge but is always waiting for him just to the side. She also never goes to the middle part of the gate, where there would be only one set of bars between her and the raptors, but always stays close enough so they can talk. Or she can yammer about this and that and Owen can nod sometimes to play like he’s listening.

She takes some photos, but other than that Owen doesn’t see her do anything... helpful, really. At least when Zach’s there, he tries to help prepare everything for the next show.

She’s there the next day and the day after that and Owen... Owen’s just a man, okay? And she’s young (but not too young, he’s pretty sure she’s at least twenty three) and beautiful and flirting with him and what is he supposed to do?

That’s how on the third day, he takes her on his bike and gets her to his bungalow. Luckily, she knows what’s going on and doesn’t waste any time. As soon as Owen gets off his bike, she pulls him close and kisses him. He likes that.

He gets his vest off even before they make it to the bungalow, his shirt and her tank top following soon after they let the door close. They hardly make it a few more steps in when she shimmies out of her shorts and wraps one long leg around his hip. Owen gets his hands on her backside, so she jumps up and wraps even the second leg around his waist.

They stumble into bed quickly, Owen laying her down underneath him and she parts her legs so he fits nicely between them.

It’s quick and hot and exactly what he needed. She’s soft and smells nice underneath him, squeezing him tight in just the right moments.

It’s over embarrassingly quickly (it’s been a while, okay?), but he makes sure she comes, too. No one leaves his bed unsatisfied.

After, he lies down next to her, still gloriously naked and not really bothered about it. It’s not like it’s cold on the island. And he’s mostly used to sleeping naked anyway.

Of course, that’s when he hears it.

“Owen?” comes from outside the bungalow in painfully familiar voice. The girl next to him groans and he quickly moves his hand so it’s over her mouth. He places his finger on his mouth in a gesture clearly telling her to keep quiet, before quickly putting his underwear on and going out.

Zach’s there, of course. His shirt is wrinkled and open, letting him see the tank top underneath it. He looks exhausted but smiles at Owen. Then he notices his state of undress and frowns a little.

“Am I... interrupting something?”

Owen’s quick to reply, but before he can do that, the door behind him opens and slim arms sneak around his shoulder and waist, resting on his naked chest. Zach’s face falls and... is that jealousy he sees there? It might be for the girl, but... Zach doesn’t like her and Owen knows it. He’s heard him complain about all of his team enough to know that. Then Zach’s face turns into a stony mask.

“Sorry, shouldn’t have just... barge here like that. I’ll just... go.”

Owen grimaces a little, when Zach simply turns around and quickly walks away.

It’s better this way, he tries to tell himself. Even if it was jealousy in his face, it’s just a simple crush. He’ll grow out of it. And this might even help him with it.

The girl chuckles quietly and lets him be, going back to the bungalow.

“That should do it,” she comments and Owen frowns. He turns and gets back, too, slamming the door closed.

“What?”  
“That should bring him down to Earth,” she shrugs, getting back into bed and smiling at him seductively. Suddenly, he doesn’t find it nearly as appealing as he did when she did it back at the paddock. “He walks around like the park belongs to him. Just because his aunt is the big boss and manages to get him the best work around here. But enough about him. Come here,” she almost purrs. He frowns and crosses his arms on his chest.

“Who are you?”

She blinks at him, confused, before laughing. It’s a nervous laugh and Owen’s suddenly so annoyed with her.

“What do you mean? I work on the raptor’s PR team.”

“No, I mean... what’s your name?”

He’s rude and doesn’t really care about it. He usually tries to be at least polite to his one night stands, but somehow this girl stepped over a line he wasn’t aware he had.

She pouts now, thrusting her lower lip out and waving her eyelashes at him.

“What do you mean? Of course you know my name! We work together.”

“No, I don’t. And we don’t work together. You work for Zach and I work with him.” His voice is full of poison and he feels a little bit bad about it, but he doesn’t like the way the girl talk about Zach. Sure, it might look like Claire just... gave him good position because he’s her nephew, but this girl works with him, she should know better.

It suddenly makes sense why he hasn’t seen any of Zach’s team before, why it was always Zach running around making things happen. And he hates her a little bit for making him work so hard.

She frowns and shakes off his shirt, before bending to put on her shorts.

“You’re a pig, Owen Grady.”

“Tell that to Claire, she might actually care.”

She glares at him, before putting on her bra, taking her tank top and storming off of the bungalow. Owen groans and falls head first into his bed.

This might help Zach get over his crush, but it isn’t helping Owen. And he managed to ruin a chance of nice evening with him.

Life sucks.

***

The next day, Zach is back at the raptors paddock. This time around, he’s in shorts and a tank top. He’s also almost never looking at Owen. Owen catches him watching him now and again, but mostly he keeps busy with helping around. It’s Echo’s turn to wear the camera for the two o’clock show, so he takes it to her and spends the time before it with her. Owen can come over and talk to him, sure. But Zach just looks so peaceful with her. And it’s the only time when Echo isn’t moving too much, too fast, and actually seems to relax for a little bit. So he leaves them to it.

After the show it’s time for lunch for people. There’s a big cafeteria-like room where they usually take their lunch. Either ordered out or packed.

Owen takes a box of pizza that was delivered that day and takes it to a table where Zach’s already sitting with his own pizza. Zach smiles at him a little shyly when he gets there, before looking back down at his pizza.

“Hey,” Owen smiles at him. “Where were you these last few days?”

“Getting yelled at in Zigotskij’s office,” Zach huffs, annoyed. “And then in aunt Claire’s office, because Zigotskij wanted to fire me. I’m... temporally on an unpaid leave.”

“Oh. What did you do?”

Owen doesn’t know about anyone being on an unpaid leave. Honestly, he didn’t know you can get fired from around here. Usually, people either walked out on their own or were injured enough to not be able to do their job anymore.

“Decided that different social sites were made for different reasons and we should use them that way. Seriously, what’s the point of having one post on every single social site? So I posted some information on twitter, posted a teaser photo on Instagram and made a big post about the hunt on Facebook. Zigotskij hates it.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” shrugs Zach. “Either way he wants me out of the team. Claire talked him out of it for a while. Zigotskij should be starting a debate on the sites right about now about which approach they prefer – all the same posts on all the social media or different ones for different media. In a week we’ll get together in Claire’s office and talk about it some more. If the people agree with him, I’m fired. If they agree with me, I’m back to leading the team for raptors, independently from Zigotskij, answering directly to Claire.”

“That’s a big jump for an intern,” Owen laughs, winking at Zach. Zach reddens in cheeks a little, but smiles. “So what? In the meantime we’re without our own PR team? I’m hurt, Zachary. Hurt!”

Zach laughs at that, finally looking at him with sparkling eyes.

“Oh, don’t worry, you’re still very special. In fact, in the mean time Brittany will be the one leading your team.”

It’s half teasing, half painful and Owen doesn’t follow.

“Who?”

Zach gives him an unimpressed look.

“Brittany. The half naked girl from yesterday...?”

“Oh. So that’s her name.”

***

Zach spends the week at the raptors paddock, helping where he can and chatting with various people. He slips simply into the group of people around there. It’s the same way it was the year before that. Except now people tease him about how a big boss came to see them, lowly laborers. It’s all in good humor and everyone laughs, Zach most of them all.

After that week, he disappears for a day again. When he comes back the next morning, he’s back in his black trousers and a shirt. This time it’s light green shirt that nicely brings out his tan. He also has two phones in his hand and a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

“You won?” Owen asks with a smile on his own.

“Overwhelmingly. Zigotskij got so red in the face I was afraid he might faint. Now, do you think we could get between the girls in between the shows? I need some nice photos to make up for the shitty job Brittany did.”

“Oh hell no. I’m not letting you go into the arena. But probably from inside the gate? If you angle the photos right...?”

Zach sighs, long-suffering and entirely fake.

“Well, that’ll have to do.”

After that, it’s one big circus. Owen tries to catch Zach in between shows, but it seems like he’s always working, always glued to one of the phones. They get a little while together when Zach goes to take the photos of his girls up close and personal. Zach seems busy, but relaxed and happy.

Few days later he looks exhausted, but somehow still full of ideas. And not all of them as disastrous as going into the middle of raptors pack for a good photo.

That’s how after one of the lunch shows, and after even they eat their own lunch, Owen finds himself, Barry and Zach on the bridge above the arena with hose in his hands. Next to him is Zach with a profi camera and next to him is Barry with another hose in his hands. Zach is giddy with it, smiling widely and moving almost all the time. He kinda reminds Owen of Echo like that.

“Ready for it?” he smiles at Owen and then at Barry. Barry chuckles.

“I don’t think any one of us is truly ready for it. Do we have any idea how they’re going to react?”

All four of the raptors are standing underneath them, looking up in that curious way of theirs with their heads cocked to one side. They’re used to people being on the bridge, but once the three of them stopped there, two of them with hoses in their hands, Blue noticed them and stopped in her track. Delta soon joined her and where the two of them are the other two are soon to follow.

“Nope,” answers Owen with a grin of his own. He missed this, trying new things with his girls. “The last time I sprayed them Charlie was about a month old, Blue about half a year. They were much smaller back then.”

“Come on, there’s only about three hours left to the next show. We all know that the last hour before that we won’t be able to do anything and we should let the girls have their fun while they can.”

“Also you can have the photos online before the show that way,” teases Owen, swaying his hips so he checks Zach that way.

“Please,” sighs Zach, hardly checking him right back. “I’ll have to get those photos to the computer, maybe edit them a little, select the best few, make a post about it for Facebook, select the best photo to post it on Instagram as a preview... So please, let’s do this the fun way.”

Owen frowns a little at that rant. Shouldn’t he be able to delegate at least some parts of that to his team?

“Fine. Let’s do this.”

They start the water. The raptors jump back, before curiously stretching their necks to inspect the waterfall.

They know water, of course they do. They have a small lake in the arena so they can drink and even bath if they want to, but they’ve probably never seen something like this. Owen laughs and moves the hose a little bit so it lands closer to them. Echo sneers and jumps back a little, but Blue moves her head under the spray of water. She screeches a little but moves so her whole body is under the spray.

Soon they all run around, even fighting a little over who gets to stay under the spray. It actually gets so bad that Barry and Owen start moving the hoses so the sprays never stay on the same place too long.

Zach takes one picture after another, now and again even screaming out one name or the other. The girls are so used to him by now that they usually at least look up, sometimes even chirp at him. Echo evens opens her mouth in something that resembles a smile. A terrifying, scary smile, but by Zach’s laughter he’s not afraid of that. Barry, on the other hand, shudders when he sees it.

“How can you laugh when you see something like that? She could eat you with one snap of her jaws.”

“Well... yeah. But she won’t,” shrugs Zach before snapping another photo.

The time flies and the girls don’t stop jumping around, catching the water in their mouth, splashing each other and fighting over who gets to be under the spray longer. Echo gets so hyper at one point that Blue swipes her tail and gets Echo on the ground. Owen doesn’t hesitate and sprays water all over her lying body, laughing out loud. When he looks at Zach, he’s surprised to find him snapping picture of him instead of the raptors.

“What?”

Zach colors a little in his cheeks, looking back down. Owen’s smile gentles a little. Until he looks up and sees Barry looking at him, eyebrows raised in a judgmental way. He frowns at him and shakes his head just a bit. Barry nods, but his eyes tell him that they’re going to have that discussion whether Owen likes it or not.

More than an hour later, Zach sighs when he looks at the time.

“I should get going. I need to be back for the show and I want to have the photos in the computer and if possible selected at least a bit before that. I’ll see you two around.”

He turns to leave, going swiftly to the side of the bridge. Owen’s eyes sway to his ass and before Owen can think better about it, he turns off the hose, turns it towards Zach, aims and starts the water again.

Zach screams, high-pitched and all, and jumps a little, clutching the camera close to himself. But the water doesn’t get anywhere near it. Owen turned the hose off after only just a little bit of water got to Zach. He’s not mental enough to ruin the park’s property. Besides, the only thing that’s wet is Zach’s behind and a small part of his shirt. And really, that makes it all worth it.

“Hey!” pouts Zach just a little bit. “What am I supposed to wear now?”

For all Owen cares, he can walk around naked. Or in the wet clothes. It’s not like it’s freezing or anything. In this weather it should be dry in no time at all.

“Owen has an extra set of clothes in his locker,” calls Barry after him. “I’m sure he has something there you can borrow. Right, Owen?”

He sends Barry one nasty look, but nods and grins at Zach.

“Sure. Catch.” He throws him his keys. “The small one is from my locker. You know where that is, right?”

Zach catches the keys without trouble and nods.

“You’re lucky the camera survived, asshole,” he mutters, but turns and goes down, into the rooms for employees. Owen stares for a while, but then there’s water on his back. He jumps a little and turns towards Barry.

“Hey!”

Barry laughs, so what else can Owen do but return the fire?

They play for a while like little kids, but then the girls start screeching extra loud and they turn back to them. The silence gets tense after a while and Owen sighs.

“Okay, out with it. What is it you want to tell me?”

Barry’s silent for another minute or so.

“Everyone has their ‘oh my god, I’m so in love with Owen Grady’ period. Even some straight guys around here.” Owen frowns a little. It’s not exactly news to him. He tries not to lead those people on, sleeping with some of them only after they get over that. So what’s wrong with that? “Zach’s been doing heart eyes on you ever since I remember.” Really? That’s news. Sure, he noticed his looks lately, but... even back when he was sixteen? That... shouldn’t be as hot as it is. “But I’ve never seen you looking at anyone the way you look at him.”

Owen sighs and stops the water. Barry frowns a little, but stops it, too, and turns towards him.

“He just turned eighteen.”

“I know,” he snaps, probably harder than Barry deserves. “Believe me, I know. And I’m not doing anything about it, I promise. Like you said, everyone has that period. It always passes. I’ll leave him so he can grow out of it, too. I won’t do anything about it.”

Barry looks at him for a while, expression unreadable.

“Claire would probably kill you if you started seeing her nephew.”

“I just literally promised I wouldn’t go after him, so what-”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, though.”

Owen just gapes at him for a while.

“... What?”

“Sure, not yet. He’s going to college in the fall and maybe it will change everything. But I’m pretty sure that he’ll be back next summer and if nothing changes...”

Owen just gapes at him for a moment.

“Are you serious? He’s sixteen years younger!”

“Yeah, sure, that’s not... usual, but why not? He’s not in awe of you. Not the way new people usually are. He sees your bullshit and doesn’t just take it, knows how to talk back to you and doesn’t let you do whatever you want. He seems to understand you probably even better than I do. Sure, he’s still...”

“A kid?” Owen laughs a little, but it comes out sad and forced.

“Immature,” Barry finishes, sending him an unamused look. “But then again, something more you have in common!”

“Come on!”

“But I have confidence that he will grow up, so that’s good. At least one of you should.”

Owen pushes him a little bit and Barry laughs. They put away the hoses, take off their shirts and get them out to dry quicker.

“So,” Owen starts, a little awkwardly. “You think I should try it? Next year I mean.”

“Sure, why not? Zach’s great and by then he will probably be the head of our PR team.”

Owen can’t help the proud smile that gets on his face after that.

“He really is something else, huh?”

***

Ten minutes before the next show, everything is ready and even his shirt is dry enough again, so he puts it on and gets on his spot at one side of the bridge, hidden from the eyes of people coming to their seats. He doesn’t really like the first part of the show, but if there’s enough kids he can pull them into it, letting them ask questions instead of simply doing a lecture about raptors.

He’s trying to peak out of his hidden spot to see if there are any kids around, when the door opens and in slips Zach, the camera still around his neck. But instead of his work clothes he’s in Owen’s shorts and his tank top. The shorts are too big on him, sliding down his hips and Zach is just hosting them up, but somehow that makes it so much hotter.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Owen answers absently, before snapping his eyes back up to Zach’s face. “You all set for posting?”

Zach snorts.

“Not nearly. All I’ve managed to do is delete the technically bad pictures. Smudged, with only half a raptor in it and so on. I’ve still got hundreds of photos to pick from. I’ll have to go through it after the show, but I’ll probably set the post for tomorrow. I might do the Instagram post today, if I manage to select a photo for it, but... Sorry,” he grins a little self-consciously. “You all ready for your show?”

“As ready as always,” Owen shrugs, but doesn’t look away from Zach. “Why don’t you just... delegate that to your team?”

Zach moves his eyes so he’s watching the crowds. Somehow, he manages to make that nervous, too.

“They’re all done for today,” he mutters quietly, under his breath. Owen frown.

“Really? I don’t think I’ve seen them here.” Zach looks down to his camera and starts fidgeting with it. “Aren’t they supposed to be here with you? You know, helping you with your work?”

“They prefer to work from their offices in the main building.”

“You can send the photos there and let them work from there.”

“Like I said, they left already. Their works ends at five.”

“So does yours.”

Zach shrugs and Owen frowns some more.

“Zach, are they any help to you at all?”

Zach finally looks up, this time with a stubborn expression on his face, and looks right to Owen’s eyes.

“And what do you want me to do with that? Go to Zigotskij, so he can laugh in my face and use it as a prove that I’m useless? Or better yet, take it to aunt Claire like the stupid kid everyone here thinks I am? Either way, everyone will laugh at me, thinking that I got the job only thanks to nepotism. I can’t do that to aunt Claire!”

Owen blinks in surprise at the last part. He gets that Zach doesn’t want that for himself, wants to prove himself for who he is and not for what contacts he has. He’s driven enough for that. He didn’t realize that part of that was on Claire’s behalf.

“I didn’t realize you like Claire that much.”

“I don’t,” he shrugs. “I don’t really have anything in common with her and I don’t agree with a lot of her decisions. But she lives for her career. She’d never give me a spot just because I asked for it.”

Owen grins at that. Zach’s right, of course. He just didn’t realize that Zach sees into her like that.

“Okay, but the social media can still wait. It’s not like anyone knows we decided to give our girls the day of their lives, is it? So you can finish that tomorrow. What do you say about dinner at mine? Burgers and beer?”

Zach’s smile turns bright and wide and Owen needs to put it on his face more often.

“Sounds like heaven.”

***

Owen tries to talk to Zach about the amount of work he takes on himself more often, but he doesn’t succeed. They have few fights about it before he gives it up and starts to simply focus on making Zach relax more often. Burgers and beer by the lake prove to be a great way for it, because it’s something Zach can hardly say no to.

He falls asleep on the outdoor seat enough times that Owen actually drags out the loungers he bought some time ago so that when Zach falls asleep next time, he can simply throw a blanket across him and leave him sleep that night there. The weather is warm enough for that.

Owen tries to bring it up with Claire sometimes (the dinner they go to together once in a while would be a great time for that), but... it’s not his decision to make. And if he wants to continue in this relationship in the romantic direction he needs to treat Zach as an equal who can make his own decisions. So he needs to stay out of it. As much as it hurts to see Zach so exhausted, all he can do is to make sure that he eats properly and rests enough.

Luckily, once Gray comes for the rest of the summer, Owen easily finds an accomplice in him.

Gray takes two days to see all the other shows in the park before he finally makes it to the raptors’ one. He spends the day mostly with Owen, asking more and more questions and unsurprisingly, Owen’s able to answer only half of them. He doesn’t take a seat among the public, but he also can’t stand on the bridge during the shows, which is why he hides in the spot Owen usually hides just before each show. He tries to get as close to the girls as Owen goes, as Zach can go, but the girls react nervously to him, Echo even trying to get to him in the way she hunts, so Owen quickly pushes him further away and tells him to stay there.

He doesn’t see Zach that day, not even for dinner, because Zach and Gray are supposed to eat with Claire that evening.

The next day, Gray is still there, right beside Owen, but he’s less focused on the raptors and more on Zach, who emerges now and again to take some photos before disappearing again.

“Shouldn’t there be more people doing that job? Aunt Clair said something about his team...?”

“Don’t even get me started on that, kid.”

So they team up and get Zach on a regular regime. Gray takes on making sure that Zach eats enough, not only lunches and dinners, but also snacks throughout the day. And that he always has some water by his hand. Owen didn’t realize that the reason why Zach always drinks so much during the evening is because he forgets to drink when he’s working. Who even forgets to drink?

Owen’s job is to make sure that he leaves the work behind when he leaves the paddock and that he leaves the paddock in some normal time, if possible then with everyone else. Also, dinner is his job. He tries to make it more healthy than “burgers and beers” once Gray starts joining them, but he doesn’t think he’s that successful.

Gray adores the lake. The moment he sees it for the first time he wants to jump in and Owen has to stop him and caution him that he doesn’t know how deep the lake really is.

“Well... you know, right?” Gray turns to him, all big eyes and waving lashes and Owen remains entirely unmoved. Thank God that his eyes are nothing like Zach’s.

“Sure you can go swimming, just don’t jump right into it. Also, stripping from your clothes is a great idea before you go there. You joining him, Zach?”

He hopes his voice doesn’t betray his high hope that Zach will strip and get into the lake.

But Zach is already lounging on his lounger and shaking his head when Owen turns towards him.

“Too tired,” he mutters, closing his eyes again. “Don’t overexert yourself, Gray. And no swimming after dinner. We should leave soon after anyway.”

And they do. Owen is just a little bit disappointed that he won’t wake up in the morning to soft Zach with bedroom hair and gentle smile as he’s doing breakfast for both of them. He usually feels grateful that Owen lets him sleep yet guilty that he fell asleep, so he makes breakfast and coffee for both of them, before disappearing to quickly change his clothes and get ready for the work in his flat at the complex for the employees. Not this time, though. Gray’s staying with Zach for the rest of the holiday, so he makes sure they leave after the dinner.

The third time they have dinner like that, though, Gray’s just not quick enough to get them both up before Zach falls asleep. He looks just as reluctant to wake him up as Owen feels, so he goes into the bungalow and gets the blanket that is now basically Zach’s.

He doubts he’ll stop thinking about it that way just because Zach won’t be around anymore. And yeah, he’s in a real trouble, but he’s ready to wait and see how this goes. If, and only if, Zach comes back next summer completely over him, he’ll start working on getting over it himself, but not yet.

“You can either go to Zach’s yourself or stay here,” Owen tells Gray quietly enough so that Zach doesn’t wake up. When he looks up from where he’s tucking Zach into the blanket Gray’s giving him an unreadable, focused look. “What?”

“You do that often?” he nods towards Zach. Owen tries to ignore the way it makes him nervous and shrugs.

“He’s usually exhausted. And that way I can be certain that he doesn’t go straight back to work. Is that something everyone in your family does, overworking themselves?”

“He’s got it from mum’s side of the family,” Gray shrugs. “But you’re right. Every time we got home he went right back to his phone. Some sleep will do him good and if I wake him up now he’ll just go back to work.”

“Sure. Wanna take my bed?”

“Nah. The weather is nice enough and that way I can go swimming first thing in the morning, as soon as I wake up. You have another blanket?”

In short, Owen likes the new routine with Zach and Gray. He could easily get used to it. The same way he got used to his routine with only Zach.

It’s a shame there’s only a week of the summer left.

It’s not like he’s going to be bored. They need to plan another hunt (the girls are already getting agitated again) and maybe even come up with something more permanent. Claire’s already looking into the possibilities of moving the girls up north permanently, but there is still the question of how to do shows up there. It is quite the way from the tourist center.

***

First year of college is... chaotic. Zach loves it.

He gets a boyfriend, he fucks for the first time and he breaks up with said boyfriend. All in two months time. Then he goes home for Christmas and doesn’t tell his mother anything about it. He was going to tell her about Dan during the Thanksgiving holiday, but he didn’t get to it and then he broke up with him two weeks after he got back, so what would be the point?

During Christmas holidays, mum tells him she has a new boyfriend, but he's spending the holidays with his kids and it's too early to spend Christmas together anyway. Aunt Claire drinks a glass of wine in one go before almost yelling at Zach for not telling her that his team was full of incompetent idiots. Then she sighs and apologizes for not knowing that he did all the work himself over the holidays and promises that next year will be better. He didn’t even tell her he wants to go back yet and he’s not sure how he feels about her just assuming.  
On the other hand, she gives him a brand new phone that’s even newer model than the one he had during the summer for work purposes. And this one even has slot for two SIM cards so he will be able to use it as his own and a work phone during summer. If he decides to come back.

... who is he kidding, of course he’s coming back. He loves the job. And Owen is... a nice bonus.

He tries to forget about him during the rest of the school year. And he’s successful, mostly. Finals help. So do other guys he meets with during the semester. He doesn’t get another boyfriend again, but he has his fun. Plus, he and Dan remained friends and still have great sex now and again, so he can’t really complain.

After the finals during June, he takes a week to go celebrate with some of his friends (and Dan. Three times with him. In one day, he’s smug to add) before going home for a week. He meets his mother’s new boyfriend there. And his kids. His two daughters. One of them is sixteen and giggling and making eyes at Zach. The other is thirteen and murmuring something about how it’s unfair that she had to miss a game for that.

It takes all of five minutes for him to give up and blurt out that he’s gay. He’s sure he’d last longer if the sixteen years old girl wasn’t playing with her long, light brown hair and leaning so close to him that her boobs were almost hanging loose from her shirt. The boyfriend just nods, saying then that Zach’s mother already told him and Zach smiles at her for that. The older daughter (Agatha?) pulls back, her face sour, while the younger one (Martha. He thinks...) snorts and asks him to pass the potatoes. All in all it’s not a bad evening, even though Agatha doesn’t speak to him for the rest of it.

Still, he’s glad to pack again and leave for the Jurassic World. And Owen is only a small part of it.

He smiles at the wallpaper on his phone, before quickly changing it. It’s easy to endure the teasing of guys at college, but he doesn’t know how he’d explain having Owen on his phone to his aunt. Or worse, Owen.

It’s the photo he took during the big water day they did for the girls. Owen’s laughing there, head thrown back, hose in his hands and shirt stretching across his wide shoulders.  
Zach sighs and changes that photo to a selfie he took with Gray their last day in the park last summer.

He spends his time on the plane going through the social media sites of the park. He sighs, when he switches from Facebook to Twitter, finding all the same posts there as he did on Facebook. With some exceptions.

The raptors team took his strategy and is running with it. He knows that the people there aren’t the same Zigotskij picked for him last summer, this time they’re handpicked by Claire herself. And they’re doing a great job, if the number of likes and shares and comments are any indicator. Raptors have the most of all of them on most of their posts. If he lingers too long on photos where Owen is visible... he hasn’t seen him in a while, that’s all.

It’s Zara who’s waiting for him on the airport and he’s... actually, he’s surprised by that. Aunt Claire has been there for him last year and the year before that and she’s also come for Gray both times and she drove them to airport after the summer ended. So she sending Zara is a surprise. Even though he’s happy to see her.

She hugs him and he laughs and hugs her right back. Zach hardly notices the man next to her clearing his throat, but she simply laughs and pulls back just enough to look him in the eye.

“You grew up again!”

“No, I didn’t,” he snorts. “You’re lacking your usual heels.”

“Oh, right. Zach, this is my husband, Mark.” Only then he looks at the man standing next to them. He’s a little shorter than her, even in her flats, wide shoulders and chest, dark hair short, almost shaved off, and is wearing cargo shorts and a flannel shirt with its sleeves rolled up. He’s not really fitting next to Zara, in her elegant clothing... even though she’s not wearing her usual work get up.

“Nice to meet you, Mark. I’ve seen the photos from your wedding. They’re really beautiful.”

The man smiles then and the crinkles around his eyes make him somewhat softer.

“Thank you. Even though that was entirely thanks to Zara,” he puts his hand on her waist and somehow that makes it look more delicate. Zach nods with a smile.

“Yeah. What’s up with your clothes anyway? I’ve never seen you in anything less than some heels.”

“It’s my day off,” she shrugs. “We finally scored tickets for the raptors show, so I can finally show them to Mark.”

“You know that if you just showed up Owen would find something for you, right?”

“Sure, but the last thing I need is owing Owen a favor. You’ve got your suitcases?”

He’s got three of them and Mark is able to lift and take all of them at once. Zach gives Zara a look and she simply winks at him, before jogging a little to catch up to him and moving her hand so it rests on his arm. Zach sighs a little wistfully before jogging up to catch up to them.

“So, what happened that you’re the one picking me up on your free day?”

“She really is sorry, Zach.” He rolls his eyes at that. He knows that. He might not have known that two years ago, but he does now. “Something came up. She called about an hour ago. There’s some emergency she can’t get out of and didn’t want to leave you to fetch for yourself.”

“What kind of emergency?”

He’s on his phone even before he finishes asking the question, going to twitter to find out if it’s something PR related.

“Stop it!” hollers Mark. “Both of you. You,” he looks at Zara, “have a day off and you,” he adds towards Zach, “don’t start until tomorrow. Chill out. I’m sure that whatever the emergency is miss Dearing can handle it. Now come on, I wanna see some raptors.”

Zach grins at that.

“Yeah, can’t wait to see them, too. Do we have enough time to stop at mine to leave the bags there? Wait, do I have the same flat I did last year?”

“Actually, no. Claire moved you so you’re closer to the operational center and the marketing and PR offices.”

Zach makes a face at that. The last thing he wants to do is be closer to the offices where Zigotskij and the rest of the people hating him are. But it’s not like he’s planning to spend much time there.

They stop by his flat and leave the bags there, but then they have just enough time to catch the bus for the show Zara got tickets for.

Zach knows that the raptors moved up north. He follows the social media of the park, after all. What surprises him is how long the ride up north is. He knows he took it only once last summer, but he still didn’t realize that he can forget so easily.

They grab some food to eat on their way there and once they make it out of the bus Zara and Mark go wait in the line to get to their seats, while Zach goes right to the back door, waiting for someone to come running. It never takes long around raptors paddock and he’s happy to find himself inside in few minutes. The arena is different than the old one, but he still finds Owen easily enough.

He stops in his track, just watching Owen laugh at something Barry’s saying. There goes his hopes of getting over Owen in the last ten months.

Then Owen looks over and smiles brightly and shit, Zach’s heart really should learn to keep its calm around Owen.

“Zach! Hey, you’re here early.”

He jogs a little to come to him and, to Zach’s astonishment, hugs him. Shit, shit, keep it together! Zach awkwardly hugs him back and when Owen starts pulling back he quickly pulls back, too.

“Yeah. Aunt Claire’s busy, so I figured I’d come say hi to my favorite girls. You think I can meet them after the show?”

“Sure. What do you say about our new arena?”

“It’s... nice, I guess. When did you move?”

“About six weeks ago. Claire was determined to move us after that first hunt, but there were some changes that needed to happen before we could move. It was all done about two months ago, but we needed to install the invisible fence first.”

“Invisible fence?”

“Yeah. Look, I’ll explain everything after the show. You wanna go sit on the seats for public, or...?”

“When have I ever sat on those when Claire wasn’t around?” Zach rolls his eyes. “Just show me where I can stand without anyone seeing me and I’ll be good.”

There’s no bridge across the arena. But there’s a gate on the other side of the arena than where the bus pulls with people who come for the show. The space above the gate is free and it’s also where Owen goes out to stand for the show. He looks much more relaxed than Zach remembers him from the beginnings of the shows in the past.

“Ladies and gentlemen, kids and teenagers and everyone else!” he shouts out when he gets a good to go sign from Barry, who’s standing next to Zach. They’re standing on the side of that space, shielded from the view of other people but still with a good view of the arena. Someone obviously made this space intentionally this time around. “I know you’re waiting for a raptors show, but as you probably know, we’re still not sure if our girls are turning up this afternoon. Shall I call for them?”

Owen’s cheeky, in a good mood, and the kids in audience reply with enthusiasm. The gate under Owen opens then and he whistles loudly, two fingers in his mouth for that. The first whistle is long, while the second one is swift. Then he turns back towards his audience.

“I’ll try that two other times and if neither of those work, we’ll have to think of something else to show you to make sure you get your money’s worth,” he winks and the crowd laughs. Zach raises his eyebrows and turns towards Barry.

“It happened during first few shows,” Barry shrugs. “We had to turn up old records from older hunts, give away some things from gift shops and even return money to some people, but the girls got used to coming back in time for their shows and we haven’t had any problems in the last few weeks.”

“Wow,” Zach replies, turning back to see Owen working the crowd. He hated the lectures at the beginning of every show, so he turned them to a little fun, where people get to ask questions and Owen tries to answer them as best as he can. Gray got banned from that activity after the first time he turned up for a show. “They really listen?”

“To Owen, sure. He was injured about two weeks back and I tried to do one show, the same way I used to do in the old paddock. They were there, I saw them right outside the arena. But when I whistled, they just stood there before turning around and running away. Brats.”

Zach chuckles at that. It takes another few questions before Owen turns away from the audience and repeats the double whistle. He gets to answer only two questions before there are screeches from outside the arena. Owen’s smile gets even wider and Zach can feel himself get giddy.

“Looks like the main stars are here!”

First in the arena is Blue, of course. She screeches and sneers and runs around the empty place in front of the jungle, before calming down a little bit and screaming, high and loud. That’s when the rest of them come in, Delta to stand right next to Blue, exchanging chirps with her, Charlie standing on the other side of Blue and Echo running some more circles around, screeching at the people in their seats.

There are still four screens all around the arena, so everyone can see what’s happening on the free space even if they didn’t get the seats closest to the free space. All screens are now displaying the free space, one focusing on the three raptors standing in the middle of it and one on Echo, the other two on the group as a whole.

“No cameras on raptors anymore?”

“You try to get them come here sooner so you can snap cameras on them,” grumbles Barry, but there’s a smile on his face. “It’s good to have you back, Zach.”

“I don’t know. The team seems to have everything covered. I follow the park account... everywhere, after all.”

Barry just snorts.

“Sure, whatever.”

The show isn’t the same way it used to be. Firstly, no one calls it a hunt anymore. They’re just tracking exercises with much less meat than Zach’s used to. They’re also more focused on how the girls listen to Owen than anything else.

And they listen to him. He has a lot of signals for them and Zach can’t follow what all of them mean, but he’s impressed. Sure, the girls sneer and screech and scream at him when he gives them a command they don’t like, but they listen to him. Surprisingly, they even let him decide who gets the little piece of meat they find.

“They get enough food on their hunts outside,” explains Barry. “This is just... a small snack for them. A little bit of fun.”

“And a show for people,” Zach smirks, but nods his understanding.

The show ends with the screens getting dark and Owen saying goodbye to the people. The raptors are still in the jungle part of the arena, so the people reluctantly start leaving as soon as Owen disappears from their view, going right to Zach and Barry.

“That went well,” he smiles cockily at Barry. Barry rolls his eyes.

“Whatever. We’ll be checking them over in half an hour before letting them go again. Most of us won’t be there for the evening, so we better get it over with now.”

“What, you’ve got a hot date?” Owen wiggles his eyebrows and Zach snorts when he sees it, almost choking on saliva.

“Actually, yes,” grins Barry. “Betty from accounting agreed to go out with me today, so I better make myself presentable before leaving.”

“Sure, whatever you say. Come on, Zach, let’s leave him to it. I’ll show you the girls.”

On their way there they meet Zara and Mark and invite them to come with them. Zara doesn’t look that excited, but Mark sounds very happy about the prospect, so they all go.  
Instead of the old gate there’s the two-lock gate Zach’s used to from the old paddock. Owen whistles, this time just one long whistle, starting high and ending low. It takes a while, but then all the girls are there on the other side, Echo screeching and running as close to the second set of bars as possible. Zach smiles and turns to Owen.

“Come on, open up the gate.”

“What? Don’t!”

Owen chuckles when he hears Zara’s reaction.

“Don’t worry, the inside gate will stay closed.”

“Oh come on,” draws out Zach, but it’s mostly teasing. “When will you let me see Echo eye to eye?”

“Never. And,” he adds to Zara and Mark, “you can always stay here. Actually, I’d feel better if you just stayed here.”

With that he opens the first gate and lets Zach step in before following him and closing the gate again. By then Zach’s already close and personal with Echo petting her and snuggling her head as close to himself as is possible through the set of bars. It does weird things to Owen’s insides and he thinks only part of that is worry about Zach. He’s sure he’d feel better about it if he took that well to Charlie instead of Echo, but what can you do. Zach knows very well that Echo is the nastiest, most vicious of all four of them, but he doesn’t care.

“Still not over your fascination with our nasty lady?”

“Never,” Zach grins at him, before petting Echo for the last time and moving to Charlie. “She’s my best girl.”

Charlie sneers a little at that but closes her eyes a little when he moves his hand between her eyes.

“Found your best boy yet?” Owen asks, nervous and not looking at Zach from where he’s petting Blue. Zach snorts.

“About a handful of them,” he laughs a little. “You should meet Dan, I think you’d like him.” Which was the reason why it didn’t work out. Dan was too much and not enough like Owen for Zach’s liking. “But... no, not really. How was your year?”

“As uneventful as can be with four raptors,” he chuckles and finally looks at Zach. He’s smiling at him and Owen can feel himself melt just a little.

Neither one of them notice Zara and Mark anymore. Zara is leaning into him and both of them are watching them.

“Are they... petting the deadly dinosaurs?”

“Yeah,” sighs Zara, not even surprised anymore. “While doing heart eyes at each other. And I thought Jenny was exaggerating.”

“Jenny?”

“She was security for the old raptors paddock. Come on, lets go before the last bus for the audience leaves and we’ll be stuck here until the last show. I’m sure Zach has things to do on his own.”

***

Barry comes too soon to tell them to move it so they can check the girls out and then leave. Owen huffs, but takes Zach back up, above the gate. That way he can see behind the gate, up north for the first time.

It’s beautiful. The nature out there looks almost untouched by human hand. There are fields and forests and everything in between and Zach doesn’t see the end of that little natural heaven.

“It’s beautiful,” he breaths out, leaning on the concrete fence a little.

“Right?” smiles Owen a little, leaning his hip into the fence next to Zach. “The girls get everything from here up north to roam. They can’t go south. There’s a chip in their neck that paralyzes them if they try going there. Invisible fence,” he grins when Zach turns to him and Zach chuckles.

“And yet they still come for those shows?”

Owen shrugs.

“They can hunt whatever they can up there, but there’s not that many animals left out there. And we don’t feed them nearly as much as we did in the old paddock. You saw it during the show – we used to make sure they get enough during them, but now we treat it more like... snacks. We don’t keep them starving, of course, but... they have motivation to come and play nice.”

Zach laughs a little, but it’s quiet and soft.

“So... how exactly do you do hunts for them now?”

“There are some buildings up there. We transport animals there and on the day of the hunt let them go, so that the girls and I can hunt them.”

“Girls and you, huh? So you still go out with them?”

“Yeah. I actually think that those hunts are the reason why they listen to me nowadays so well. We usually get most of the animals, but if we don’t get them right away they usually stay here at north, so the girls can get them whenever they want to.”

“Keeping them fed, not caged, satisfied, and fit,” grins Zach. “Clever. Really clever. You think I can come with you sometimes? It could be cool to get photos from it and post them online.”

Owen rolls his eyes and finally moves so he’s looking at the fields behind the arena.

“You’re not even working yet. Chill out for a minute. And I thought I just told you you’re not getting anywhere near them where there aren’t any bars between you and them.”

“Party pooper,” Zach mutters, but smiles at him. “So, what’s new? You know aunt Claire, all the rumors of this place go right above her head. So tell me everything. But first – how and where is my old team?”

There’s a mean glint in Zach’s eyes and Owen has to laugh when he sees it. He can’t blame him for finding joy in revenge on those three. Zach almost ran himself sick last summer, he deserves to know the epic screaming Claire did at them (Owen wasn’t there for it, but it was a topic of the park’s rumor mill for good two months).

They talk and laugh some more, when the transmitter on Owen’s hip wakes up.

“Owen, you hear me? We’re letting the girls go now.”

Owen quickly takes it and replies to Barry.

“Everything alright with them?”

“Healthy as can be,” comes a quick reply. “You ready?”

“Sure, let them come.” With that he puts the transmitter back and winks at Zach. “You wanna see something?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Nope. HOLD!”

Zach jumps up a little bit, but when he looks down there the raptors are, all standing as still as he’s ever seen, their heads cocked and looking up at them. Zach realizes that the gate under them is still open.

“So?” Owen turns to him, all smug, self-satisfied smirk on his face. “Still don’t believe me that they listen to me now?”

Blue snaps a little then, screaming before snapping her jaw shut in Owen’s direction.

“Yeah, Blue, I hear you. Yeah, okay, fine.” He clicks his tongue and whistles, once and short. Echo screeches and that’s the last Zach sees of them. When he turns they’re running across the field, straight to the nearest forest.

“Yeah. Can’t believe my own two eyes,” Zach draws out, but there’s laughter in his voice. Owen nudges him with his hip and Zach laughs a little.

Of course, it’s then that they hear the sound of someone snapping a photo. They turn towards the space from which Zach watched the show. There stands a guy in shorts and a tartan shirt, profi camera in his pale, long fingers and a smile brightening his face. His hair is short and light, almost blond, his nose a little crooked and his ears standing out, away from his head a little. He can be in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, and he looks damn happy about the photo.

“Yes! I beat Monica.”

“No, you didn’t!” comes from the transmitter on his hip. “And I bet whatever you want that my photo is cooler.”

“Shit,” the guy swears. “To hell with it! Her Instagram has the most followers and she’s been lording it over me for months now,” he adds, as if it’s supposed to explain anything. “I’m Carl, by the way. I lead our Facebook page. I’m a big fan of the way you divided the purpose of our social media.”

“Um... thanks, I guess,” Zach answers, a little confused, but shakes the hand Carl extends to him. “I didn’t realize I have fans around here.”

“You do!” comes from the door and Zach blinks in surprise at the girl who obviously just ran up the stairs. She’s twenty five or so in a skirt and a blouse with a strap of the camera around her neck and breathing heavily from all the stairs she had to run up. Her short hair is light pink and she smiles at Zach brightly as soon as she catches her breath. “You made Zigotskij bright red on the regular. That alone makes me love you, but your strategy is actual genius. Monica, by the way,” she adds, giving him her hand. “I love the way you brought people closer to the raptors, showed them how they live without telling any of the secrets we keep here.”

“Yeah, well... from what I can see you continue the work fabulously. You divided who runs what site?”

“Yeah, it’s easier that way. We still cooperate on it, Monica usually does a preview and small snippets of the day and I do bigger stories with more photos attached. Then there’s Jon, but he’s more... technical, giving away trivias about the raptors and general information for the public. It works for us,” shrugs Carl, smile still on his face. Zach nods and smiles back, but it’s mostly automatic.

“Looks like the three of you have everything covered,” he mutters, silently.

“Yeah. I better run, wanna get this photo online before the next show. It was an honor, Zach, seriously. Hopefully we’ll see each other around.”

With that, Monica disappears on the stairs, closely followed by Carl.

“Hey, wait for me, you witch!”

Owen laughs, but when he turns to Zach, he stops. Zach doesn’t look happy. In fact, he looks almost disappointed.

“Something wrong?”

Zach shakes himself free and turns to Owen with a smile.

“Of course not, why...”

“Stop that. You can tell me the truth.”

Zach sighs and shakes his head a little.

“Sorry, you’re right. It’s just... I’m not needed here. They have it covered between the three of them, so I probably won’t be working here anymore.”

Owen frowns a little at that.

“Yeah. I mean... Those three are doing good job. They even made an office out of one of the empty rooms here in the complex. But mostly they’re still running around, making photos and talking to people here. Actually, a lot like you,” he smiles at him, but it makes Zach hardly move his lips.

“Yeah, I guess,” he sighs. “It’s just... ugh,” he groans. “Zigotskij is still the boss, which means that I will probably be running like crazy for the rest of the summer. And I was really looking forward to spending some time here, with the girls.” With you. “So, I guess that won’t happen.”

“You do know that you have normal working hours, right? As an intern you’re supposed to start at nine and end at five and have your weekends free. If you want to you can be here every weekend. And we still can have our dinners.”

“You still have the bungalow by the lake?” Zach asks and now he sounds much more like himself. “Even with the girls being here up north?”

“Sure. I love them, but even I need some time outside of work. Something you can learn from.”

“Says the guy working three shows a day, seven days a week.”

***

There’s a knocking on his door the next morning, just after he got up. He frowns a little but goes open it.

“Hey, Zach,” smiles aunt Claire at him, already looking ready to face her day. “I wasn’t sure what are your plans for the morning. Would you mind having a work breakfast with me? I’m afraid I have a meeting at half past nine, but we still need to talk about what your job is going to be this summer.”

“Uh... sure. Just... let me get dressed first?” He has his trousers on already, but other than that he’s only in his tank top. Claire smiles and nods, telling him which restaurant she will be waiting at for him.

He finishes dressing quickly, before taking his phone, his employee badge from last year (it should be activated again by now) and his wallet and walks out of the flat.

Claire already has an espresso and a glass of water in front of her, so he orders a cappuccino and two toasts with scrambled eggs. Aunt Claire declines food, saying that she ate already.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you up yesterday. Or have a dinner,” she sighs and Zach can see that she really is sorry.

“It’s fine,” he smiles a little at her. “You’re busy, I get that. I’m sure you can’t tell me what was wrong,” he adds a little teasing. Aunt Claire smiles at him, wide and unguarded and somehow he feels really warm like that.

“You’ve got that right. So, about your internship. I don’t think working under mister Zigotskij is a good idea for you. Or anyone else, really. And you seem really good with starting new projects. Your backstage photo was a hit and you kick started our raptors team. It turns out that the idea of having PR teams instead of just one big department is... advantageous for everyone. The raptors team has its own social media accounts and it’s more popular than the general accounts in itself.”

“So I am going back to the raptors team?” Zach asks with hope in his voice. Claire smiles, but shakes her head.

“No. That team works on its own and we have bigger plans. We want you to start another team. A team for herbivore dinosaurs.”

Zach just blinks a few times.

“You just said that you want to make more specialized teams and then you tell me you want to start a join account for half of the dinosaurs?”

Claire rolls her eyes.

“And can you imagine what would it be like if we created a team for every type of dinosaur we have here? What would you even write about some of them all the time? The more interesting such as raptors, sure. Plus, the squad has more free reign here than any other species. What?” she asks, a little confused, when she notices his amused smile.

“You called them squad. It’s official, I gave them their name.”

Claire rolls her eyes but smiles at him.

“Of course you did. Now, we probably will do an account of its own for pterodactyls and maybe even the Mosasaur, but what do you even post about...,” she makes a pained face at that. “I forget the names of most of the herbivore dinosaurs as soon as they’re properly introduced to public,” she sighs, defeated.

“Yeah, I get that,” chuckles Zach. “Gray can say which one is which from just one look at them, but it goes way over my head.”

“Yeah. You need to figure out a way to change that.”

She says that with such finality Zach’s left to blink a few times. Thank God that’s when the server comes again and serves him his breakfast right then.

“How am I supposed to do that?” he asks while getting some sugar to his coffee. “You said it yourself. They’re not that interesting.”

“That’s up to you to figure out,” she smirks at him from behind her cup. “You are the leader of the herbivore PR team, after all. Don’t worry about Zigotskij, you’re answering straight to me.”

“Fine. So... you keep saying team. Who else is on the team?”

“That’s another part of your job,” she smiles and it’s cheerful and evil all at once. “You’re supposed to be the leader. Part of that is knowing who to choose for which position. Talk to people around the office. If you get some names, I’ll give you access to their records here at the park. Once you select your team, take it to Zigotskij.”

Zach looks up from his breakfast.

“What? That guy hates me!”

Not that he’s that surprised about that. Zigotskij worked hard to get where he is, he’s probably closer to fifty than he’d like to admit. Zach just... showed up and suddenly is on almost the same position. Or not, considering he leads only one team instead of the whole department, but... Zigotskij probably sees it that way.

“And that’s another part of the job. You want to be someone, you need to learn how to work with people who don’t like you. And you do want to be someone, don’t you?”

Zach scowls at her, but sighs and nods.

“I don’t suppose I could get Monica and Carl from the raptors team, could I?”

“Not a chance. Those aren’t working under Zigotskij, either, and I need them where they are. If he gives you too much trouble, says no to everyone you want to get, you can bring it up to me, but only after trying to work it out with him. Now, we’ve got twenty minutes before we have to go so I can show you your new office before going to my meeting. Tell me, how were your finals?”

***

 

Owen doesn’t see Zach at all in next few days. He figured that Zach probably didn’t want to see him yet, he’s sure Zach has better things to do after all. But when a week goes by and nothing changes, he decides to check it out himself. If Zach doesn’t want to see him, he’ll back off and get over himself. Somehow, he doesn’t think that’s the case, though. He hopes it’s not the case.

So next Saturday after breakfast he takes his bike and goes over to the flats where employees usually stay. It’s not before there’s a half asleep guy Owen’s never seen before opening the door he just knocked on that he realizes that Zach probably doesn’t have the same flat he did last year.

“Can I help you?”

He sounds pissed and Owen really doesn’t feel like fighting on his day off.

“Sorry, I knew a guy living here... a year ago. You probably don’t know where Zach Mitchell lives now, do you?”

The guy looks at him as if he said something incredibly stupid. Owen smiles a little awkwardly at that and runs a hand through his hair.

 

“Yeah... sorry about that. Have a nice day.”

He’s not sure what to do after that. He could call Claire, but he’d rather arm wrestle Roberta than ask Claire for information about her nephew. But who else...

He feels a little guilty when he calls the number. It’s not like Zara doesn’t have enough work during work days. But that call should be quick enough.

“What do you want, Grady?” comes a grow-y question and Owen almost regrets calling. Almost

“Sorry to bother you on a Saturday. Where does Zach live now?”

There’s a short silence, before...

“You gotta be fucking kidding me. It’s complex 2 flat 78C. Call me during my free day again and I’ll chop your dick off.”

“You’re spending too much time with Claire.”

“Whatever.”

With that she hangs up and Owen adds her to his list of “call only in case of life and death situation”.

It takes only few minutes for him to make it to complex 2, flat 78C. It’s closer to the offices than he likes, but he figures that it’s better for Zach like that. He knocks and waits a minute, then knocks again. When Zach finally opens up, he’s only in his underwear, has epic bed hair and dark circles under his eyes. And looks surprised to see Owen there.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be doing a show... or something?”

“It’s first Saturday of the month. It’s my free day.”

“Oh. Good for you.” Zach blinks, obviously still asleep. Owen sighs.

“When did you get to bed last night?”

“Um... three? No, that was yesterday. I think it was about two?”

Owen groans and palms his face. He doesn’t think Zach’s slept much more during the week. Why does he have to go for the workaholic types?

“Okay, you know what? I’m gonna leave right now and you’ll get back to bed. I’ll come back at noon and we’ll do some lunch together. What do you say?”

“Thanks, but I should probably get going anyway. I need to-”

“Okay, no, stop. You need to sleep. It’s Saturday, you’ve got weekends off, remember?”

Zach frowns a little, but then sighs, leans against his door, closes his eyes and nods.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s just... fuck, I forgot how intense this place is. The money is nice and I like the work, it’s just...”

“Hard to take a step back and realize what’s important and what can be left for later?”

Zach opens his eyes in surprise.

“You know that?”

That makes Owen laugh.

“Not really. But I have adult friends. I hear it’s a usual problem among them.”

Zach giggles and turns red immediately and Owen has to fight a gentle smile. He does not do gentle smiles.

“Okay, fine. But I have a better idea. You give me your number and I call you when I wake up so we can set the lunch up. I kinda feel like sleeping the day away and do not want to set an alarm for lunch.”

Owen gives him his phone so Zach can insert his number and text himself Owen’s number with a relieved smile. That solves a lot of future problems, he assumes.

“Do you have something to eat right now? If you’re that tired you should probably eat something before falling back asleep.”

“Yeah, I think there’s some kind of snack or something. Thanks, Owen. I guess I’ll see you later.”

That gives Owen few hours to kill. He’s not sure what to do with those.

Normally he’d go visit his girls but right now they’re too far away. Sure, Zach probably won’t call for another hour or two, but the way back down would take another thirty minutes at least and honestly, he doesn’t want to wait that long to see Zach again.

So he goes shopping instead. With his time spent travelling between his bungalow and the raptors paddock he usually doesn’t have the time to stock his kitchen. It helps that they usually order lunches and even dinners as a group at the paddock, so he doesn’t have to think about food on his own. It’s enough to stock on snacks on his free days.

When he’s in the shop (there are more of them on the island, mostly for employees but sometimes even visitors shop there when they need or want to) stacking on his usual snacks for next two weeks (third Sundays in month are also free for him), he starts thinking about the dinners they used to have last year and buys some burgers and beers. Maybe they can forego lunch at some restaurant and just hang around his bungalow, like they used to do.

When he gets back home and puts everything away, it’s only an hour later and when he checks his phone there’s not even a text. So he sighs, puts on some swim shorts and goes for a swim.

It’s almost noon when Zach actually calls and Owen is just getting to the good parts of the Journey to the Center of the Earth. He leaves it behind easily.

“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

“Hey,” comes an almost shy answer. “Sorry about that.”

“Nothing to worry about. You good now?”

“Yeah. Great, actually,” he chuckles. “So... lunch?”

“Oh, right. How do you feel about burgers by the lake?”

Zach moans and Owen closes his eyes for a moment, letting himself imagine Zach right now. If he’s still just in his underwear, splayed on his bed...

“That sounds absolutely amazing. Something I should bring? Beer, maybe?”

“Aren’t you still too young for beer?” snorts Owen. “Everyone here knows you’re nineteen, no one is suicidal enough to risk Claire firing them on spot.”

“Shit, you’re right. Anything else I can bring?”

“Some dessert would be nice. Should I pick you up?”

“No, that’s good. A walk will be good for me. I should be at yours in about an hour.”

“Sounds great. I’ll have the grill ready by then.”

He completely forgets that promise. Jules Verne is great author, okay? And he doesn’t have that much time to read usually, so it’s pretty easy for him to get lost in the books he actually likes.

Zach brings ice cream with him.

“You wanted a dessert,” he shrugs with a smile.

They make themselves lunch and eat it with their feet in the cool water of the lake. Zach laughs at him when he moves his seats to the lake, but when he actually sits down he sighs in pleasure.

“This might be the best idea you’ve ever had.”

“Wait till we get ice cream out here.”

They eat and talk and laugh and Owen loves every second of it.

Zach explains why he’s been running himself scares once again. He’s trying to find people who’d be willing to work with him while working with the system he started with the raptors team. It’s hard when most people work from the one office and that office is just one room full of tables. His only luck is that on his second day Monica turned up in the office, greeted him enthusiastically and introduces him to some people around. He then spent some time talking with them, selecting five of them for his next team. Even asking them if they’d want to join that team or if they’d prefer to stay where they are. Only one of them was a little reluctant at first and Zach told him that if he ever decided that he wants the spot, Zach will try to get him a spot on the team. Which left him with four candidates for his new team. And really, he needed only two, but he knew that Zigotskij would cause problems, so better come prepared, right?

What he didn’t know was that Zigotskij was going to try to put stop to all of his proposed plans. He refused to let go anyone of the four Zach asked for and when Zach asked where he is supposed to get his team members, Zigotskij just smiled and told him it’s not his problem, but that he needs everyone in the office, can’t afford to lose anyone.

“Which is bullshit!” Zach finishes his tirade. “Aunt Claire told me herself that I’m supposed to recruit from his people.”

“And have you tried talking to her about it?”

Zach sighs and slumps back in his chair, cuddling the ice cream close.

“Not yet. But,” he adds before Owen has a chance to say anything, “I already have a lunch meeting with her on Monday. I wanted to try and solve it myself. It’s part of leader’s job to find a way to work with people who don’t like you.”

Owen frowns a little at that.

“You’ve got that from Claire, don’t you?”

“She’s right, though.”

“Maybe. Where it comes to managers. You’re an intern. Who the fuck lets you lead anything?”

Zach frowns a little, pouting just a bit and Owen wants to get his thumb on that fat lower lip.

“I like the job,” he says stubbornly, chin jutted out, ready to fight. “It’s a lot, but I like it. I learned a lot about raptors last year and I hope to learn even more this year. Sharing the knowledge with the world in ways which people enjoy. And if they let me get together the people I want to I wouldn’t have to do everything myself.”

Owen nods, not taking his eyes away from Zach.

“Sure, all that sounds nice, but... you’ve got a lot of responsibility for someone who works here two months out of a year and just started college. Don’t you want to just, I don’t know, relax for a bit?”

“I am relaxing.” Zach turns his head enough to smile at Owen, all soft and gentle eyes and God, Owen could kiss him right about now.

He really could.

As in, there’s nothing stopping him. Zach’s a consenting adult and by the look lingering on Owen’s lips he wants that, too.

Owen even starts leaning close to him, when Zach suddenly turns to face the lake again.

“You wanna go swimming? I took my swim shorts this time around. It’s really a shame I didn’t get to try the lake yet and if we have the whole afternoon off, I figured we could go swimming.”

...

Maybe next time.

***

His fight with Zigotskij turns into an outright war.

Zach doesn’t really mind, because after his lunch with Claire he got the two people he really needed for his team. And this time around, those people actually seem to like him.

There’s Lucy, a twenty-eight years old girl usually in some kind of cute dress and with the sharpest questions. She gathers information about all the herbivore dinosaurs with a laser focus and determination Zach hasn’t seen outside his own family yet. She takes to Twitter with ease, sharing bits and pieces of knowledge and getting in touch with Jon about different strategies for twitter.

Then there’s Sarah. She doesn’t like formal clothing, mostly running around in shorts and tank tops with some kind of text on it. Her humor is as dry as Sahara, her deadpan comments making everyone laugh and she tells every story in a way that it seems interesting and funny. She takes over Facebook like she was born for it. She’s not that popular among mothers, but everyone younger than thirty finds her comments hilarious.

Theoretically, he’s leading the team. Practically he’s happy to sit back and let the two of them boss him around. It helps that all he needs to do nowadays is go around attractions, talk to people and snap one picture after another. Sure, he and the girls need to communicate, but mostly he just snaps a lot of photos, then takes the best one and posts it online. Honestly, it’s his dream job.

He’s even willing to get into fights with Zigotskij every once in a while for that life. It also helps that the girls seem to really like him when he stands up to that man. He doesn’t understand how a pair of such stubborn women ever caved to a man like Zigotskij, but if that’s how he’s gonna earn their respect, he’s not going to complain.

Their media accounts don’t get nearly as many followers as the raptors team have, but that’s fine with Zach. In a week they’re established as an official account and each have at least five thousand followers.

They even go celebrate the first successful week with the raptors PR team that first Saturday. That’s how Zach meets Jon, a big man with dark skin, shaved head and an almost permanently frowning face. Zach quickly learns that he’s not mean, just awkward with people. Unless he’s online.

They have a great time. Monica is happy to have some girls with them for once, they dance a little and drink a lot and soon Zach feels just like with his friends at college.

“Okay, but now seriously,” starts Monica after about fourth row of shots. “Are you or aren’t you sleeping with Owen?”

Zach almost chokes on nothing.

“W-what?”

“Come on, Zach,” laughs Carl. “There’s a pool at the paddock and I’ve got twenty bucks on yes.”

“And I’ve got twenty on no,” adds Monica. “So come on, which way is it?”

“I... I... what?” splutters Zach a little. Monica laughs and claps him on a shoulder.

“Told ya,” she smiles at Carl.

“Wait, seriously?” giggles Sarah. “A pool? What are we, in middle school?”

“Oh, you haven’t seen them, have you? Wait, you’ve gotta see that.”

She takes the camera she took with her (it’s a professional deformation, taking it everywhere with you, and Zach understands. Kinda), turns it on and quickly goes through the photos before showing something to Sarah and Lucy. To Zach’s astonishment, all three of them giggle about it.

“What? You haven’t even seen us anywhere together.”

Somehow that makes all five of them stop and turn towards him. All of them a gleam in their eyes. Zach slides down a little on his seat.

“I understand I am a teenager, but aren’t you supposed to be more mature than that?”

“We’re all in our twenties. None of us know how to adult, get over yourself.”

“Now,” adds Carl gleefully, “where exactly have you two been together in the last week?”

Zach rolls his eyes at them.

“We spent last Saturday together and usually have dinner together. And, you know, he’s always there when I go visit Echo and the other girls. And what even is that photo?”

It’s from his first day back on the island. It’s taken from down below, probably the other end of the arena. And yeah, okay, the camera is very good, considering the quality of the photo and how far away Monica had to be while taking it.

The gate is still open there and four raptors stand in it, all looking up. And there, above that gate, stand Owen and Zach, looking at the raptors, but their bodies are turned to each other. Their faces aren’t visible, but somehow, their stance broadcasts intimacy. Is this really what they look like to other people?

He doesn’t say anything, but there has to be something in his face, because Monica takes the camera from him and smiles at him softly but teasing just a little bit.

“I’ll send that one to you.”

“Thanks.”

“So,” draws out Sarah, “how do we get our fearless leader together with... your fearless leader.”

***

He manages to talk them (mostly girls. Why is it always girls who want to matchmake?) out of trying to get them together.

That’s not the worst outcome of that evening. The worst is that suddenly he can’t just ignore those moments between him and Owen.

Before that he was able to ignore it. Shake himself and tell himself that he was just imagining things, to get over himself and stop projecting. He and Owen? Never gonna happen.

But ever since that evening, ever since that damn photo, he can’t help himself but start to think that he’s not the only one staring. That he’s not the only one leaning closer, watching the other one wistfully.

He catches Owen watching his lips a few times, looking at his ass once or twice. And yeah, maybe he likes those pants exactly because they make his ass look absolutely amazing.

Their shared dinners are another thing entirely. Owen doesn’t have those loungers of his took out again, maybe because Zach isn’t as dead on his feet as he was last year nowadays. But it’s hard not to remember when he woke up tucked in a blanket on those loungers when it turns late, he curls into himself and Owen brings out that damned blanket of his.

It fucks with Zach’s head. He’d like to clear it again, but... his usual go-to person for that is Owen.

So when that Saturday rolls around, he goes for a lazy breakfast and then goes pet a dinosaur. He takes some photos and after getting an agreement from parents posts a collage of kids riding small dinos to the company Instagram. It’s not work if he enjoys it, right?

But in the end he still finds himself on his way to the raptors paddock. On a jeep with about twenty boxes of Thai on it.

They arrive just after the two o’clock show ends. People jump on the food with enthusiasm, Monica just taking a box and winking at Zach. Before Zach can yell anything at her, Owen’s there.

“Hey,” he smiles and... did his smile just turn a little bit brighter as he saw Zach or was it just his wishful thinking? “I’m sorry, but we’re busy today. Tomorrow’s my free day, which means that today we’re doing a hunt. I have just enough time for lunch before I have to check everything over before we’re doing an evening show. It’s earlier today, because we’re leaving for a hunt almost right after the show ends.”

“Hunt?” Zach smiles. “Can I go?”

Owen stops on his way and turns an unimpressed face at Zach. Zach’s holding his own box Thai food and following him. He’s not sure where they’re going, but he’s not that bothered by it. Then Owen sighs.

“Let’s leave that decision for later. Come on, let’s eat. How are you? I’ve seen you’ve been busy even though it’s your free day.”

“Oh, come on! I just spent the morning in a petting zoo and then helping kids ride baby dinos. It was fun!”

“Seriously, babe, shut up.”

Owen chuckles a little, before it dies down. Zach’s very careful not to look at him. Sure, it was said teasingly. But...

Owen takes them up next to the bridge, on the place where it’s so easy to hide from the public’s eyes and still see into the arena. The gate is closed this time around, even though Zach can hear the girls screeching and chittering around at the other end of the arena.

They sit down on the floor, eating and after a while talking once again. It’s easy to ignore all the tenseness between them like that, when it’s just the two of them with the sound of Owen’s raptors in the distance.

But soon after Owen needs to run and Zach is left alone with his thoughts again. Which is not good.

He walks around some, but all the people seem to be busy and he doesn’t want to bother them. So instead he wanders around the halls, trying to orient himself in this new arena.  
Eventually he ends up in a room where there’s just one computer, but enough space for three people. The only one there right now is Monica, with her feet on the table, an empty box of Thai food next to her and a phone in her hand. Zach’s just glad that she’s wearing shorts instead of her usual skirts this time.

“Working hard, huh?” he asks, leaning on the doorframe. Monica jumps a little and looks up but doesn’t put the phone away or put her feet down. Then she smiles at him.

“Zach! Love the photos you put online about an hour ago. Very cliché, but very nicely done.”

Zach rolls his eyes and sits on one of the free seats in the room.

“I just happen to like all of them. Doing anything important?”

“Not right now. I already tweeted about how our today’s show is earlier because of the hunt. All that’s left to do is a Facebook post about today’s shows, an Instagram tease about the evenings hunt and a short tweet reminding people that we’re out tomorrow. We don’t really do posts from the hunts anymore, mostly because we don’t get any photos from it, so... that’ll have to do for today.”

“Looks like you’ve got it all covered. You rotate who gets the weekend free?”

“Yeah. Thanks to Owen’s deal we have to work only every other weekend on both days, so in two weeks the three of us rotate. That way we get usually one weekend entirely free and the other one only half full. Besides, if there’s something big happening we’re all here either way, so not one of us is overwhelmed.”

“That’s... really cool.” He should probably look into getting another person on the team. And he should probably talk to the girls about how to handle weekends in the meantime. He likes his free time, but he’d hate to be a burden on the girls. “Hey, do you have a free camera around here somewhere?”

She frowns a little, but nods and gets up. She goes to the cabinet that can be locked and takes out a profi camera. Then she looks at him, suspicious.

“What do you want to do with that?”

He grins at her.

“I’ve been working on Owen for years to let me come closer to the girls. I think I might have a chance to go hunting with them tonight. If I do, I’ll take the camera and do some photos for you, so you guys can work with them.”

She looks stunned for a moment, before her eyes widen and she looks radiant.

“That would be so. Cool. But you know what? Owen’s right. You need to learn how to relax.”

Zach frowns a little.

“He told you that?”

“He didn’t need to, but... yeah. When we told him that we went with you dancing he started a whole rant about how you need to relax more.” She winks at him. “Now come on. I think the show will be starting soon. I can’t miss that and you don’t want to, so we better go.”

***

The moment Owen’s done with the show, he quickly goes down, to where his bike is. It’s waiting for him right outside the gate on which he stands during the show, so when the crew will open it, the girls will see him already on his bike. It’s a good system that seems to be working fine.

Zach’s right there with him, with a camera hanging from his neck. Where did he even get a camera?

“Can I go, then?” he asks, eyes bright and his whole body almost shaking in excitement.

Owen wants to say no. He really, really does. Because if he takes him with him he’ll be getting him into so much danger that neither of them can probably imagine it right. The girls aren’t used to him when there’s not a set of bars between them and whoever knows what they will do when they see Zach right there. It’s such a bad idea on so many levels.  
But how can he say no to those eyes? Besides, he wants Zach there with him. He’s been thinking of him as part of the pack for quite some time now and he wants him there for the thing that became such an important part of his interaction with his girls.

To be honest, he probably made that decision a while ago. Why else bring his second helmet with him today?

“Fine. But you don’t step down from the bike, hold tight to me and listen to everything I say, you hear me?!”

“Sure,” Zach answers easily with a charming smile and Owen quickly turns so he doesn’t have to look at it or he’d be too distracted to ride the bike. He opens the door to the area behind the arena. “But... the arena is this way,” Zach points to the door on the other side of the hall. Owen chuckles.

“Sure, but we’re not going to the arena.”

With that he comes out of the door, but keeps it open for Zach. His bike is right there, two helmets waiting for them on it. The moment Zach sees it he turns to Owen, a smug smile on his face.

“Last minute decision, huh?”

“Shut up and put the helmet on.”

They both put the helmet on and jump on the bike, before Owen takes the radio and tells them to open the gate. Then he starts the bike so when the gate opens they’re all set to go. The girls stop in the gate and just look at them both.

He tries to ignore the way Zach’s warm arm feels around his waist as he tells the people on the other side of the radio to let the animals go. Then he puts the radio back on his hip, securing it so it doesn’t fall off.

He whistles once, swiftly, before clicking his tongue twice. Echo screeches and Charlie sneers, but Blue and Delta just chitter before all of them run off, Owen going after them.

Zach behind him laughs, loud and joyful and Owen simply grins and speeds up.

Zach can admit that he’s a little dizzy from the speed and the proximity of Owen alone. Then they catch up to the pack, when they pull into the middle of them and they slow down once again so they’re riding in the same speed the rest of them are running.

Echo’s face is suddenly close enough to Zach that he’s sure if he was able to stretch his arm he’d be able to touch her. She chitters softly at him, before turning so she’s looking ahead once again and Zach’s left there clinging to Owen and smiling so hard his cheeks hurt.

They’re going somewhere. Blue is guiding them somewhere and it’s exciting and worrying at the same time. Zach suddenly realizes what hunting really means. There are animals out there running around right now that won’t be there as soon as the raptors get to them. And it’s chilling yet so exciting because... Zach gets to see that live.

Owen stops the bike once all the girls attack some kind of animal and Zach leans back, takes the camera from his back (the strap is long enough to be able to manipulate it enough so that it’s safe there during the ride. Or as safe as it can be while he’s on the bike and there are four raptors around him) and starts taking as many photos as he can. Owen snorts when he sees it but doesn’t say anything else to that.

The raptors make a quick process of their first catch and soon enough they’re moving again. The only warning Zach gets is Owen leans to take the handle of the bike again. As soon as he gets the camera out of the way and his arms around Owen’s waist again they’re running with the girls again.

That process repeats itself three or four times. Owen murmurs quiet explanations to him (what is it they just caught, mostly deer, doe and now and then some rabbits, why it’s so easy to catch a deer but a little trickier to catch a rabbit, things like that), but mostly they keep the silence, interrupted only by the sound of the camera.

But it starts getting darker and Zach doesn’t want to use a flash, so soon it’s only them, the girls and the rest of the nature.

After a while, they get to the point where Echo plays with a rabbit of her own and Delta, Blue and Charlie managed to cage a whole flog of ducks between the three of them and are playing with them at the moment. Owen sighs and gets off the bike, careful not to punch or kick or otherwise harm Zach.

“They’re full now,” he explains with a fond smile. “They just want to play with their prey. They’ll probably be at it for some time. We can get comfortable in the meantime.”

Zach gets off the bike, too, but instead of sitting on the ground he lets Owen put the bike on the stand and then leans carefully back, so he’s mostly standing but still being supported by the bike. Owen chuckles and shakes his head a little but follows Zach’s example soon enough.

It’s almost entirely dark by that point and they’re in the middle of the field, trees only somewhere in the distance. When Zach looks up the night sky is perfectly visible, the stars shining bright up there. He smiles when he sees it.

“I worry about Echo sometimes,” Owen starts quietly. Zach looks back down and straight at Owen, but Owen is watching Echo torture the poor rabbit. “Blue and Delta formed their partnership early on and Charlie was always the baby of the group. She herself took a special interest in Blue and Blue replied in kind. Sure, not exactly gently, but... you know, tough love,” he smirks a little, the proudness of his girls clear in his stance. “But Echo... she was always a little too... much, I think, for the rest of them. She was never able to get into or mimic the partnership between Delta and Blue. So she challenged Blue in everything they did. Eventually it turned into the fight for dominance and... when she lost, I was afraid she’d be ostracized. She isn’t, not nearly, but... she never found the kind of partnership in the girls that they found in each other. Not even in me or Barry. That’s maybe on us. But you...” He suddenly turns to look at Zach and Zach almost stops breathing for a while under the heavy look of devotion and appreciation in Owen’s eyes. “She took to you like nothing I’ve ever seen before. And you didn’t disappoint. Every time you turn up, you go greet her, petting her and paying attention to her in a way she clearly needs. It might take you some time in some cases, but... you never overlook her, always paying special attention to her. Thank you.”

Zach feels a bulge in his throat and it’s hard to just swallow it.

“It’s nothing. I like her. I like spending time with her.”

Owen smiles and his eyes get much lighter.

“Exactly.”

And there it is, the magnetic pulling between the two of them. Zach swears Owen’s now watching his lips and they’re leaning close and...

Echo screeches right next to Zach’s face and then nudges him to his shoulder, hard enough to make him fall. Owen’s there to steady him, thankfully, but the mood is already dead.

Echo nudges him once more and Zach groans and raises his hand so he can pet her. She preens a little, closing her eyes just a bit and leaning into his touch. Zach chuckles then.

“Yeah, Echo. It’s nice to finally properly see you, too. See?” he turns toward Owen, his hand still on Echo and Owen kinda wants to kill him for the heart attack that gives him. “No eating of Zach. Right, beautiful?”

Echo sneers gently (is that possible? How is that even possible?) and... makes a move that on anything that wasn’t a raptor would be cuddling closer to Zach. But then she pulls away, chitters softly and runs to the rest of her pack. Zach watches as Charlie welcomes her to the group before they both go back to torturing the flock of ducks, now much smaller than few minutes ago.

Zach loves Echo, he really does. But right about now he’d like to kill her.

“So,” he breaths in, deeply, before turning back to Owen, “where were-”

Owen’s hand is on the back of his neck, pulling him close and slightly up, to hot, hungry lips that suck on his in a manner that makes him moan. He pushes closer to Owen, pulling on his shirt to get him even closer. And Owen sneaks an arm around his waist, pulling him up, to his toes, but more importantly right to Owen’s chest. Zach opens his mouth and Owen doesn’t wait for more, simply slips his tongue out, but the only thing he does is run it along Zach’s lower lip before tugging it slightly with his teeth.

The kiss goes on, heavy and dirty and everything Zach ever wanted, ever dreamt about.

When they finally part, Owen just squeezes him even tighter, resting his forehead on Zach’s. Zach opens his eyes, still a little glassy, looking at Owen, but Owen has his own eyes closed, breathing heavily and seemingly not even noticing that he’s mostly supporting Zach’s weight. Zach’s still on his tip toes and is starting to feel the way his muscles are all tense.

“Owen?” he murmurs, as quietly as he can. Probably too quietly considering it doesn’t move Owen even a bit. “Owen.”

That’s the trick. Owen opens his eyes and looks at him for a moment, before quickly letting him go and stepping back.

“Sorry. What?”

“Nothing,” he says quickly, clutching Owen’s shirt in his fist even tighter. “It’s just... My feet kinda hurt from the whole standing on tip toes thing,” he grins a little embarrassed. Owen snorts and lays his forehead on Zach’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to happen like that.”

That only makes Zach smile even harder.

“You meant for it to happen?”

Owen stands up and gives him a serious look.

“We need to talk about this.”

That makes Zach wake up a little bit, seriously afraid.

“This... isn’t some kind of... pity kiss before letting me down, is it?”

Owen moves his hand to Zach’s cheek and pulls him for another deep kiss. Zach’s not sure if that one is longer or quicker, either way it’s even more intense than the first one.

“Does this feel like a let-down, Zach?” he purrs, amused. Zach can feel himself go red in the face but refuses to give in to it and look down.

“No. It doesn’t. Do it again?”

Owen smirks, that small smile that’s simultaneously smug, arrogant and just a touch gentle somehow and leans closer again.

That’s when there’s a screech too close to them again and they quickly look to the side. Blue’s there, only few steps away from them, with the rest of the group just behind her. There’s also a dead doe between Zach and Owen and the four of them. Blue chitters some more, cocking her head to a side, looking at the doe and back at them again.

“Okay. What’s going on?” Zach asks slowly, letting Owen pull away a little bit more, but to his relief Owen’s keeping an arm around his waist.

“I think this is their way of including us in the hunt. That and basically telling us that we’re useless at it, but, you know. It’s a loving gesture. Mostly.”

“Did they do this before?”

“Yeah. Usually with a goose, though. Or a hare. Did you know that hare tastes great?”

“You know how to skin it? How?”

“YouTube,” Owen shrugs, amused. “But I don’t think I can take a doe with me on the bike to the bungalow. Certainly not with both of us on the bike.”

Zach nods and leans closer to Owen almost automatically.

“What about cutting a part of it? That should satisfy the girls, right?”

“Hopefully. I’ve never had this problem before.” With that he squeezes him once before letting him go. “You stay right here, okay?”

“No, I’m going to run away with the next raptor trainer that comes around on his motor bike,” Zach rolls his eyes. “Anything I can do to help you?”

***

By the time they come to the bungalow it’s completely dark. Everything is silent and once Owen stops the engine it gets almost too silent.

Zach’s not sure what to do with himself. He’s never been around the bungalow like that. Sure, he fell asleep there regularly last year, but... that’s not the same.

Owen takes the (big) part of doe he cut up north and smiles at Zach nodding for him to come along.

The bungalow is really small. Just a small kitchenette, a table with two chairs and a bed. Admittedly, the bed is pretty large, but it’s the only real luxury Owen has here, so he’s not that bothered by it.

He takes the meat to the kitchen. It’s mostly just meat now, he skinned it on the spot and he avoided the bones, so all he has to do is get it to some containment and to the freezer.

Zach stays close to the door, watching Owen closely as he puts the meat away.

He wasn’t afraid until just then. The ride back wasn’t exactly short, but he spent it plastered close to Owen’s back, so he can’t really complain.

He puts the camera on the table before moving his eyes back to Owen.

But now... Owen’s not looking at him, instead erratically going through the motions.

He tries to stay calm, but... shit, he’s been crushing on Owen for over two years and he feels like it’s all falling down around him and it’s starting to freak him out.

“Sorry about that,” starts Owen talking suddenly, still not looking at Zach. “I need to put it away as soon as possible. You want something to drink?”

“Yeah, no, I’m good.” He could leave it that way. It’s what his mother would do. ... And then spend the night silently judging his father for not understanding her silence. “You’re just... freaking me out here.”

That makes Owen stop and look up at him.

“Okay. Sit down. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

Zach listens and sits down, looking back down at the table. There’s still the camera. He’s too nervous to start it and go through the pictures (small part of him urges him to go and delete the technically faulty photos and screen for the best ones, at least for Instagram), but he can still fidget with the strap.

Next thing he knows two classes of water are set on the table and there’s a warm hand on his thigh. He looks up and smiles a little tightly at Owen. That doesn’t ease the worry out of Owen’s face.

“There’s nothing else than water and beer right now. I was planning to go shopping tomorrow. And I don’t think beer is a good idea at the moment.”

Owen grins at him, but Zach’s try to return it doesn’t end well. Owen sighs and leans back, pulling his hand away from Zach’s thigh.

“Talk to me, Zach.”

Deep breath.

“Okay, fine.” And out. Then he finally looks Owen in the eyes. “I have no idea how this works. My longest relationship was literally two months long. And talking wasn’t our strong suit. And... honestly, I don’t think I cared about him that much. And I do care now. About you. I mean...”

Deep breaths. In and out. In and...

“... out. That’s it, babe, come on.”

When he opens his eyes Owen is kneeling in front of him, his hand on Zach’s neck and it’s a painful reminder of his first kiss. He quickly grabs that hand, not wanting him to pull away the same way he did... two years ago now.

“Sorry,” he gets out, embarrassed, but smiling softly. “It’s just... relationships are complicated and... shit, this is a relationship, right? I mean, this isn’t just...”

“A one night stand or a one time fling or anything else meaningless. Not any of the above.” Owen’s eyes are gentle and kind and Zach kinda hates him for it, because that’s how everyone looks at him when they’re about to tell him how young he is. But Owen simply moves his thumb a little on Zach’s cheek and smiles a little wider. “I don’t know if this is going to last. Honestly, my history kinda indicates that it won’t, but... that’s not what I wanna talk about,” he shakes his head quickly, before turning back to Zach. “I’m sixteen years older than you, Zach. Are you sure this is what you want?”

Is he sure? He’s nineteen! He just finished his first year of college and still doesn’t know how to get up after his alarm first rings. He’s not sure about anything.

“No, I’m not. But I wanted to try this, try you and me, for more than two years now.”

Owen blinks in a slight surprise.

“Two years? Wow, that’s a lot.”

“You telling me? After that first kiss you made me go through?”

Owen’s smirk is back in full force after that.

“That was a pretty good kiss.”

“Yeah, thanks for spoiling me for every other kiss I’ve ever had.” He frowns a little, thinking. “Till now I mean. Wow, is every kiss from now on going to be better and better?”

Owen’s grin is amused and fond and arrogant all in one and Zach can’t look away.

“I can promise to try my very best.”

And then there’s more kisses and Zach’s brain turns into a mush. Next time it turns back on, he’s somehow sitting in Owen’s lap, thighs on either side of his hips and one of Owen’s hand in his hair.

“Okay. You either need to stop doing that or do that enough so that I’m used to it by the time I have to see other people.”

Owen laughs and it’s deep and rumbling through his chest and Zach can feel that against his own chest and yeah. He could spend the rest of his life right here.

“That’s a big talk from someone who was hyperventilating just a moment ago.”

Zach pouts a little and punches him lightly. Owen smiles at that.

“It’s late, but... let’s recap, okay? We’re together, it’s official and exclusive.”

“I don’t remember talking about that just a minute ago,” Zach teases a little, opening another button on Owen’s shirt. Owen swats his hand away and growls a little, but when Zach looks up he’s smiling at him.

“Stop distracting me, pretty. And if you have any objections you better voice them now. I don’t share well. Just ask my girls.”

Zach laughs, but nods.

“That’s fine by me. As long as it’s applied both ways.”

“Of course! God, kid, who were you dating?”

“Not like that, idiot,” snorts Zach. “He wasn’t that kind of person. Just... you know, figured,” he smiles a little shyly. “How official do you wanna make it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Obviously there’s a pool at the paddock about whether we are together or not. Also, do you really wanna face aunt Claire... possibly tomorrow morning?”

Owen makes a pained face at that and Zach does laugh aloud this time.

“Let’s just say that it’s official between the two of us right now. We’ll take tomorrow to truly enjoy each other and after that leave it to a chance. Claire will castrate me either way, so let’s just... actually, can you talk to her first?”

Zach chuckles, but nods.

“I have breakfast with her on Monday.”

“Really?” Owen pulls a face at that. “Monday morning? That early?”

“Do you want her to find out by the rumor mill?”

“Claire never listens to rumor mill.”

“Zara does. And I’m pretty sure Claire would be the first Zara tells this.”

Owen groans and rests his forehead on Zach’s chest. Zach chuckles and moves his hands to Owen’s hair, running his fingers through it.

“I’m dead.”

“She won’t kill you. I won’t let her.”

“Great. Castrated then. Can you live with a castrated man?”

“She won’t castrate you.”

“She might.”

“She won’t.

Owen pulls back and smiles at him.

“Okay, fine. Whatever you say. So that’s official, exclusive and not bothered by who knows but letting your aunt know ahead in interest of my continued health. Something else you want to know or can we move this to bed?”

Zach had to make an overeager, too excited face or something, because the next thing he knows Owen is laughing. Again. And seriously, shouldn’t Zach be insulted by that?

“Not like that, little man. I’m tired and you need to sleep, too. We’ll definitely come back to that tomorrow, though.”

Zach falls asleep in only his underwear, equally naked Owen splayed over him, fitting perfectly between his legs and laying partly on him, just the right amount so he isn’t too heavy on him and yet Zach feels his weight perfectly good. Owen’s nose is tucked to Zach’s neck and it feels like heaven.

It’s his fourth time on the island, technically, and he’s only nineteen, but he knows that if it’s up to him, he’ll happily spend the rest of his life right here.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing this. Seriously, this fic just... took over my life for good ten days there  
> Any kind of feedback will be appreciated  
> I'm also thinking about continuing this fic in form of small snippets, making a serie out of it. Let me know what you think about that and I might even get to it at some point


End file.
